Are care home fees spiralling out of control?

Published: 24/01/2013

A record number of care home residents are now funding their own care, either partially or in its entirety, a new report has revealed.

57 per cent of pensioners – 231,000 – are now fully paying for or funding some degree of their care home fees, the highest percentage ever seen.

There is now real concern that, as the government fails to make inroads into a care home fees cap, thousands more people will be forced to sell their assets and even their homes to meet the payments.

Goldsmith Williams understands this first hand; we are currently helping hundreds of families who have been wrongly paying care home fees. In many cases, families have had to sell their homes in order to fund the care of a family member.

It is understood that 175,000 elderly residents fund the full costs of their care while a further 56,000 have to rely on "top ups" from their family. This equates to 43 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.

From our hands on experience, helping people reclaim expensive care home fees, many families were, in fact, paying for care which should have been funded by their Primary Care Trust.

As part of our extended service, we offer expert legal help and advice to anyone going into care or who has a loved one who requires long term care. By taking advantage of this service, you will be able to find out if you are eligible for NHS continuing care thus, potentially, avoiding the extravagant fees with come from residential care.

Content correct at time of publication