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What free care?



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Published Date: 21 November 2008
I always find it mildly irritating when reference is made to the benefit of free elderly care (Debate & Opinion, 16 November). This gives the impression that older people who need care get it for nothing. This is wrong; there is no such thing as free elderly care.
What the then Scottish Executive put in place some years ago was what it called "free personal care for the elderly". That means that if you are in a care situation where you need help with dressing, washing, feeding etc, a payment, currently £149 a week, is made to your carers.

If you have assets, eg, you have had to sell your house, the rest is funded by you. If care costs are between £600 and £800 a week – and they are often more – your assets may not last long.

If you have no assets, all of your income, eg, pension and any other money, is taken from you and you are allowed to keep around £20 a week. For those needing nursing care a further £67 a week is given.

I am not knocking the system, but the terminology used can sometimes be misleading.

CHARLES MILLER

Tarmachan Road

Dunfermline, Fife



The full article contains 201 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 20 November 2008 8:50 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Ewan Oosami,

21/11/2008 09:30:12
Yes it is indeed a myth regarding free care. It's means tested for a start, if you have more than £18,000 you will not get a penny and according to the experts I spoke to you would have needed to pay council tax in order to qualify for council care.
This is based on the experience I had trying to get care for my mother.
I repeat - free care for the elderly is a LIE.
2

Toom,

21/11/2008 12:18:49
The situation is quite clear - it is 'free personal care' which is clearly defined and which is not means-tested. Residential care is charged for if you have assets, and that is quite reasonable if you you consider that a prime responsibility of individuals is to look after themselves. I have a house and investments which I hope will give me independent choices in my old age. But if I need residential care, I'd expect these assets to be used for that. Why should the taxpayers pay tens of thousands for my care so that my heirs can have a large inheritance? However, the one great flaw in means-testing is that it measures what you have - with no accountability for what you had and what you did with it - there should be clearer requirements for individual responsibilty to provide for oneself, to address this anomoly
3

Miss H,

21/11/2008 13:44:13
Free personal care means help with things like going to the toilet, getting washed etc.

People are not charged for that. It is free at the point of need, though obviously we all pay for it through taxation, there is no means testing.

4

Ewan Oosami,

21/11/2008 16:13:38
My mother had been living with us since she moved here from England although she lived a lot of her life in Dundee. We could not get her into a council run home so she had to go into a private one, she was being ripped off with the fees and got nothing for free, we even had to pay for a carer to go with her to hospital - we were told by social services that she wasn't entitled to anything because at that time she had more than £18k in the bank and had not paid council tax.
Toom you ask why taxpayers should pay towards the care of others - I have to pay towards the education (or lack of) and the welfare benefits of the workshy and their offspring. I have never had a penny in benefits all my life, have been taxed to the hilt and then still be expected to fund my old age - where's the incentive to get a job when you can get all the benefits without working.

 

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