A survey of 800 care homes in June found that 4 out of 5 care homes intend to increase their charges in the coming months for those people who are responsible for paying their own care home fees. This follows a staggering 14% increase in fees for private residents over just the last 12 months.
Most people don’t realise until it’s too late that the majority of care homes charge private residents more than their local authority funded customers. But both private and local authority funded residents get exactly the same services.
The difference in price, on average, is around £100 per week, rising to £250 per week in some cases. Care homes claim that they have to do this to stay in business, because local authorities don’t pay a commercially viable rate for the clients they place. Private clients are therefore used to subsidise local councils.
Figures released earlier this year show that, on average, local authorities have again cut the amount that they will pay care homes and this is without taking into account inflation. The Government’s failure to deal with rising and unfair care costs in this week’s announcement on social care will guarantee that prices will rise again.
So the financial problems faced by care homes are set to continue, with private residents picking up the tab, as explained in The Telegraph in an article entitled Long-term care costs to hit £38bn by 2025.
If you’re looking for a care home now and you’re worried about spending your children’s inheritance on fees or you’re simply not prepared to subsidise your local council through the back-door, iCarehome can help you to negotiate up to 20% off the fees for the care home of your choice. We win in pretty much every case, but we can guarantee that it won’t cost you anything if we don’t!
