The Cost of Being Old
I've learned a lot in the last few days.
If you need to go into a nursing home, and you have less than twenty-one-and-a-half thousand pounds, Social Services will pay.
If you have a house and your spouse is living in it, you don't have to sell it - he or she can stay there. But all your other assets are taken into consideration.
If you have over twenty-one-and-a-half thousand pounds, you are regarded as "self-funding" and this means that you have to pay all the cost - which is, for anywhere decent, somewhere between five hundred and fifty and seven hundred pounds per week.
Then, when your money drops to the twenty-one-and-a-half thousand level, Social Services will take over paying it.
BUT - - - they only pay up to a certain amount, and many homes charge more than this. So the payments have to be topped up - by any amount from a tenner a week to a couple of hundred.
So who will top them up? - - Well, it can't be the person in the nursing home, because their money has now dropped to twenty-one-and-a-half-thousand and they're allowed to keep that.
So it falls to the relatives. And, as you can imagine, this can be a huge financial burden on them. So what happens if they can't afford to pay?
Well, their loved one gets kicked out into somewhere cheaper, that's what happens.
Which, if they're old, frail and used to the place where they've been living, is a big trauma for them.
Of course, if the Ancient Ones give their money away to their children, which they're allowed to do, at a certain amount - I think it's three grand - a year, then when they do finally need a nursing home, they won't have enough to be self-funding.
And, of course, if the Ancient Ones have never saved a penny and have spent all their money, or if they never earned that much in the first place, then they won't have to be self-funding either.
The Communist was a pharmacist with his own shop: he worked very hard: he saved hard too, because he didn't want to be a burden to anyone.
Lots of people now keep saying to me "Why didn't you get him to give it to you?"
Because I didn't want to ask him that, and I still wouldn't: he's given me some along the way, and the rest he wanted to leave it to me, and to my brother, but there is no way I would have said, "Please give me the money now."
If it has to be spent on nursing-home care, too bad: I am currently trying to get him into the nicest place I can find. Lots of people keep saying things beginning with "But surely - - " and they mostly finish with ways to hide the money, spend the money, or give it to me. And I don't want to get involved with any dodgy dealings of this nature, thank you, because it just feels WRONG. (Though SG, thank you for your very kind offer to look it over and check we're doing it right - I will take you up on that).
I'll let you know when I've sorted it out. It's the nineteenth of December and I'd really rather that the Communist wasn't in hospital for Christmas: my ambition is to bring him home for at least some of Christmas Day.
If you need to go into a nursing home, and you have less than twenty-one-and-a-half thousand pounds, Social Services will pay.
If you have a house and your spouse is living in it, you don't have to sell it - he or she can stay there. But all your other assets are taken into consideration.
If you have over twenty-one-and-a-half thousand pounds, you are regarded as "self-funding" and this means that you have to pay all the cost - which is, for anywhere decent, somewhere between five hundred and fifty and seven hundred pounds per week.
Then, when your money drops to the twenty-one-and-a-half thousand level, Social Services will take over paying it.
BUT - - - they only pay up to a certain amount, and many homes charge more than this. So the payments have to be topped up - by any amount from a tenner a week to a couple of hundred.
So who will top them up? - - Well, it can't be the person in the nursing home, because their money has now dropped to twenty-one-and-a-half-thousand and they're allowed to keep that.
So it falls to the relatives. And, as you can imagine, this can be a huge financial burden on them. So what happens if they can't afford to pay?
Well, their loved one gets kicked out into somewhere cheaper, that's what happens.
Which, if they're old, frail and used to the place where they've been living, is a big trauma for them.
Of course, if the Ancient Ones give their money away to their children, which they're allowed to do, at a certain amount - I think it's three grand - a year, then when they do finally need a nursing home, they won't have enough to be self-funding.
And, of course, if the Ancient Ones have never saved a penny and have spent all their money, or if they never earned that much in the first place, then they won't have to be self-funding either.
The Communist was a pharmacist with his own shop: he worked very hard: he saved hard too, because he didn't want to be a burden to anyone.
Lots of people now keep saying to me "Why didn't you get him to give it to you?"
Because I didn't want to ask him that, and I still wouldn't: he's given me some along the way, and the rest he wanted to leave it to me, and to my brother, but there is no way I would have said, "Please give me the money now."
If it has to be spent on nursing-home care, too bad: I am currently trying to get him into the nicest place I can find. Lots of people keep saying things beginning with "But surely - - " and they mostly finish with ways to hide the money, spend the money, or give it to me. And I don't want to get involved with any dodgy dealings of this nature, thank you, because it just feels WRONG. (Though SG, thank you for your very kind offer to look it over and check we're doing it right - I will take you up on that).
I'll let you know when I've sorted it out. It's the nineteenth of December and I'd really rather that the Communist wasn't in hospital for Christmas: my ambition is to bring him home for at least some of Christmas Day.
posted by Daphne at 7:22 pm
2 Comments:
We live in a crazy society. My family have just had to spend £5450 on two hearing aids for my 85 year old father. Yes, nearly five thousand five hundred pounds, or rather over five thousand five hundred pounds when you include the cost of the £80 hearing test. He can't get them on the NHS because the NHS don't provide the sort of hearing aids he needs and even if they did he could only have one. Apparently if you have hearing loss in two ears that's just tough and you have to make do with a single hearing aid. Quality of life? Somehow that gets overlooked in all these equations. We've spent the money and now my father can do simple things like use the telephone, listen to the radio and have a conversation with someone face to face without them having to write down their side of the dialogue for him to read. Money well spent but not necessarily money we can easily afford.
I hope you manage to have the Communist home for at least part of Christmas day and I wish you all much love. My heart goes out to all of you.
But surely, if he worked hard and saved hard so he wouldn't be a burden - this is precisely the kind of situation he was trying to avoid being a burden in?
I hope you get him home for Christmas Day too.
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