Privately-funded residents of care homes in the UK are being forced to pay inflated prices to subsidise free care home places being granted by local councils.
Figures show that those who are funding their own care are paying as much as £10,000 a year more than for the same standard of accommodation and care as those residents who are being funded by their local authorities.
Now, care home operators are asking the Care Quality Commission to intervene to force local councils into paying more as some providers, including Southern Cross Healthcare, are facing the prospect of going bust. That fear is increased by news that many councils, facing budget cuts of their own, are looking to freeze or reduce the rates they pay for residential care in the next financial year.
Margot James, Conservative MP and a campaigner for the elderly, said that the practice was unacceptable and unfair on those who had worked hard and saved hard for their retirement. She said: “Care home fees are high enough without having to subsidise local authority residents. That adds insult to injury when many have had to sell their homes to pay for their care.” She added that families should not accept the first quote that they get from a care home.
The current state of affairs shows that the situation has not improved since 2005 when an Office of Fair Trading report revealed that a fifth of care homes used money from privately-funded residents to pay for council residents. In England those with assets, including property, worth more than £23,250 have to pay for their own care and out of 380,000 UK care home residents, 170,000 have to fund themselves. It is estimated that almost 22,000 people had to sell their homes last year to pay for residential care.
