Cost for staying in care homes for the elderly.....scary

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D

Deleted member 26715

Guest
If you don't have the money then the state pays
That is a very naive view
 

mustang1

Guru
Location
London, UK
I saw this movie the other day "I care a lot". It's about a solicitor who takes legal guardianship of older people then takes their possessions and nets a whole load of money. While it's not based on a true story, it would not surprise me if such shenanigans go on. A sad state of affairs.
 
D

Deleted member 26715

Guest
Is it not true ?
Not in my experience, trying to get Social Services to do anything but suggest the Private Sector
 
More than a bit annoying that people can comment that people with no money have just p*****d it up the wall or implied that they spent it all on drugs

Some people work in low paid jobs all their lives - it's been on the news you may have heard something
Some of them work in Care homes
Some people do not have the advantages and/or luck that other people have and never have any money to spare
A lot of these people are critical member of society -
But have no savings and can only ever rent a home as they never have enough for a mortgage.
I have certainly known - and know- people who are scared of having money. I have known people who refuse pay rises and promotions because it would mean they have to pay National Insurance (Yes - I know)

A lot of these people are not all that clever - but some of them are not all that dumb - just scared of the 'complications' of money because they have no experience of it

And a lot of them were not lucky enough to have a job that came with a good pension

So lumping everyone with less than the state's cutoff for savings as druggies and drunkards is rude, insensitive, ill informed and just plain dumb!!

I was lucky that my Dad was brought to in a family that understood money - and I grew up seeing how he dealt with the business and money in general.
The best advise he ever gave me was to get a job with a good pension.
Not everyone is that lucky!!!
 

Paulus

Started young, and still going.
Location
Barnet,
My Dad ended up in a care home.
He worked since he was 14 years old, never claimed anything, was a D Day veteran, demobed in 1948 and then got a job on the railways, retiring in 1990. He couldn't claim for anything.
We had to sell his flat to help pay the fees for the home and all his savings went also.
Sometimes I wonder if it is the right thing to do to to be diligent, buy your own place and have savings.
 
My Dad was in the RAF during WW2 - injured in 1944 (ground crew - bomb casing dropping - spinal injury blah blah blah)

Got out of hospital years later
could walk with leg irons - for a bit
worked as a Chiropodist for the rest of his life - putting money into a pension scheme for most of that

bought his house - which had to have a waiting room and surgery in it and be in the centre of a town for business and disability purposes

When he was older and (due to hospital failings that we should have taken further) he ended up in a wheelchair after spending several decades fighting against it
and then - totally unrelated - ended up registered blind like his Dad

His assets - including the house and savings and investments from pensions etc - was significant.
But my Mum had dementure by this time
and he was in a wheelchair and pretty much blind

He told me a few years before he died that - in spite of having a lot of 'wealth' - that he had planned this all - but did not expect me to inherit ANYTHING - because between them they would burn through their whole weath in care costs

It was quite painful for him to say


In the event - my Mum died due to a stroke which may have been caused by dementure
and them he died a few months after - possibly due to giving up as he no longer had his wife - and love of his life - to look after

so I inherited enough to ditch the bitch I was living with and - after recovering from a mental breakdown - buy my own house and still be able to build up my own savings before retiring early
I think he would have been/is pleased

but it only worked out because he died when he did

care costs would have eaten up his whole life savings in a year or so otherwise
disabled war pensioner or not

so thanks UK care system - the NHS is amazing - care system - not so much

it worked out for me
because he died early
I'm not sure that was the idea when the NHS was first set up
 

Beebo

Firm and Fruity
Location
Hexleybeef
Sometimes I wonder if it is the right thing to do to to be diligent, buy your own place and have savings.
Of course it was the right thing to do. I presume he wouldn’t have wanted to live a life of unemployment and struggling on benefits whilst raising a family.

The scandal of social care provision is a national disgrace but doesn’t mean everyone should live off the state their whole life just in case.
 

mikeIow

Guru
Location
Leicester
I appreciate what you're saying but it's perfectly legal and relatively simple, you're the main beneficiary and then there's the Trustees, your kids, you have sole power over what happens to everything in the trust up until you 'lose it' or sign power over to a trustee.

Or just do nothing and hope it doesn't come to that.
Well, I get what you’re saying too.....but are you familiar with “deprivation of assets”?

Maybe your kids would be happy with you being in the cheapest Council-funded home, should you become one of the minority who do end up in care. I’m pretty confident ours would want us to be comfortable, using the wealth we earned, rather than just taking a chunk for themselves.

FWIW, we have always tried to help them build their own wealth, helping (in a small way!) fund LISAs, ISAs and pensions as they have got older (& whilst I was still earning): get the power of compounding to work early (& helping educate them financially - something not well taught in schools!).

As I mentioned, easiest and best way to protect some of the house value appears to lie in the simple task of assigning the house as tenants in common versus the more usual joint tenants. Something you can do yourself. A trust is never “a simple thing“: did you write yours?
 
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