THE Tories announced another major policy yesterday: Care home costs will be given a maximum limit of£75,000. Sounds reasonable at first, but when looked at closely it becomes apparent, it is all lies, as usual, and helps nobody. Independent analysts recommended a £35,000 cap.
A £75,000 cap would not kick in for four years, by which time the average person in care would have died. The average length of time in social care in a BUPA home, funded to the tune of 70% by the state, is two years."If the cap is set at £75,000 it will take people four or more years before they hit the cap. The vast majority of people in residential care homes would have passed away before that happens."
Polly Toynbee's excellent article looks at the true picture.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/11/jeremy-hunt-will-not-solve-care-crisis
Securing more of older people's savings is partly funded by freezing the inheritance tax threshold, sending the Tory party into new paroxysms of fury. The front pages of the Telegraph and Times blasted, "Cameron abandons inheritance tax pledge" and "Osborne stealth tax on inheritance". Note how those same voices that call for more cuts to benefits for the near destitute want inheritance tax (IHT) exempt from a freeze.
As it is, only couples with property worth more than £650,000 pay any inheritance tax. That is only some 3% of the population.
Britain is a country profoundly ignorant about the distribution of its wealth, the electorate suffering under a conspiracy to deceive them. The persistent misrepresentation of the true"middle" leaves most voters clueless as to where they stand on the spectrum of incomes. Even the poor imagine they are much nearer the middle than they are, as the rich pretend to themselves that they are only middling.
New figures show the widening income gap: 1% of people now take 10% of all income while the entire bottom half receives only 18% of national earnings. Wages keep falling and wealth is sucked ever upwards.
A typical cost(in a care home) is £800 a week, so families will still pay a £360 a week top-up, plus £240 board and lodging.
People will get a nasty shock when they need care for a parent, only to discover how much they will still have to pay, and how bad is the care they receive. To cap the cost is a good idea: Andrew Dilnot called for a £35,000 maximum. But at £75,000 Hunt's words turn to dust for most, as few ever reach this level of cost.
Is that our most pressing priority, when families are queuing at food banks?
While the rich and their press fume over inheritance tax betrayal, the danger is that voters think money has been found to cure the care crisis, when nothing new has been added. So be prepared for some Mid Staffs-sized scandals soon in nursing homes and in people's front rooms soon. "Care" may become a word spoken only in irony. With no useful solution, the government should have left this snake's nest alone.
It is vital that our loved ones are being cared for adequately. I would suggest taking a look at this care home, who offer the correct and best type of care.
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