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20,000 OAPs sell their homes to fund care in past year

Wednesday, 10 November 2010 5:33 PM

Around 20,000 pensioners are being forced to sell their homes to pay for residential care every year.

According to the Daily Mail, the number of elderly property owners having to sell up so they can afford to go into a care home stands at almost 60 per day; a third of those funding their own care end up without a house. This is an increase of 17 per cent since 2005.

The recently announced cuts to local authority budgets mean that this situation is unlikely to improve. Furthermore, FirstStop Advice states that care home fees have risen by more than 20 per cent over the past five years - making the current average £25,896.

Those who don't have savings or property to sell get their care paid for by the state. This has sparked anger among many, who argue that the system is unfair and makes lifelong saving pointless, as well as meaning that families won't receive any inheritance.

Back in 1997, Tony Blair said that he didn't want pensioners to have to sell their homes in order to fund long-term care. Thirteen years (and 200,000 residential-care-funding property sales) later, care services minister Paul Burstow has said: "It is unforgiveable that next to nothing has been done to reform the system."

Neil Duncan-Jordan, of the National Pensioners' Convention, said: "If you are 28 and you break your leg, the taxpayer would pay in full for your stay in hospital. But if you are 88 and have dementia, you have to go into a care home - and you have to fund that yourself. It is grossly unfair."
 

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