My uncle’s care home fees doubled to £7,500 A MONTH in just five years -here’s

As each year drew to an end, I came to dread the email from the care home where my uncle stayed. It would be headed ‘Fee Review’, and the fee only ever went in one direction – up.

My uncle Richard had built up a healthy savings pot and owned his house mortgage-free when he was struck by a catastrophic stroke 30 years ago, while in his late 50s.

I can’t say exactly how much he’d saved because it was my father who initially took over his affairs, being appointed his deputy by the Court of Protection. 

Now that duty has devolved to me, and I can say exactly where the money is going – into the bottomless pit known as care home fees.

For many years he lived in a home called Wellcross Grange in Horsham, West Sussex. In 2020 his monthly standing order was £3,410. 

Stroke victim: Richard in his new care home with his nephew Andrew after the fees at his old home soared to £7,500 a month

The actual fees charged by the home were rather higher but were partly offset by funded nursing care, which varied between £700 and £800 monthly. 

This is an NHS payment that he qualified for because he had been assessed as needing care from a registered nurse. The monthly fees did not include extras such as hairdressing, foot care and toiletries.

In November 2020, the annual fee review pushed the monthly standing order to £4,869. DSL Care Ltd, the company that runs the home, blamed staff costs and Covid-19.

It said staff costs were also responsible for the subsequent three annual rises to £5,313, then £6,047 and £6,541.29. 

The final straw was the fee review effective from January 1 this year – although it wasn’t so much of a straw as another giant bale crashing down on my uncle’s savings. 

The monthly charge was rising to £7,500. Within five years, his fees had more than doubled.

The company partly blamed the Government’s increase in employers’ National Insurance payments.

‘The review also reflects, where applicable, changes in individual resident care needs,’ it emailed.

I asked the home to be more specific about my uncle’s changing care needs, wanting to know how it could justify a 15 per cent fee increase when inflation was running at 3.5 per cent. 

It cited ‘an increase in the amount of care and supervision needs, mainly due to medication management and falls risk management.’

If his care needs were really growing so much, then it was possible that he would qualify for NHS Continuing Healthcare funding. Recipients of this receive care for free.

But when I asked Wellcross Grange if my uncle would qualify, the care manager replied: ‘I believe there is not enough complex nursing care evidence to support this.’

So, my uncle’s needs were not severe enough for Continuing Healthcare funding but warranted the latest fees hike.

Half of the money to pay these fees comes from his state pension, a private pension and state funding such as Disability Living Allowance, and the other half from his diminishing savings.

If the fees continue to rise at the same rate every five years, then by 2030 they’ll have reached £16,500 a month, or almost £200,000 a year. How many people can afford that?

It was little compensation knowing that my uncle is not alone in facing this predicament. 

Of the 400,000 or so people in the UK living in residential care and nursing homes, only around half get local authority or NHS financial support, with the rest paying for their care privately.

The monthly average cost of residential care is £5,164, or £6,180 monthly for nursing care, according to industry website carehome.co.uk.

‘The extraordinary rises in some care home fees is very worrying. Most people who need social care have to pay for some or all of it themselves,’ says Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK. 

‘The ongoing cost-of-living crisis means they are facing even higher bills, draining their savings faster than ever before.

‘This isn’t the fault of care homes because most of their costs have risen, including their wage bills, meaning they generally have no choice but to pass these increases on.

‘The way social care works at the moment means that it is the consumer who is hit hardest when prices are rising quickly. 

Meanwhile, all the evidence is that the chances of obtaining state-funded care are not getting any better and, in fact, are probably getting worse.’

Heledd Wyn, director at The Association of Lifetime Lawyers, echoes that view. ‘The rising cost of care home fees is a source of great anxiety for many families,’ she says.

She adds: ‘There are several reasons behind the increases, including higher staffing costs, rising insurance premiums and a growing gap between what local authorities can afford and what private individuals are charged.

‘With many care homes operating on a for-profit basis, private residents often end up shouldering…