For better or worse Is the privatisation of residential home carers giving a better service for
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Britain's population is ageing: people are retiring earlier, living longer and having fewer children, but this means that the costs to the Government, of pension payouts, and to individuals, of nursing care, are also rising. It's estimated that one in four Britons will need some kind of care when they get old. The cost of decent residential care with a private room is about 400 a week or 21,000 a year, a report claims. But many pensioners find themselves in establishments with inadequate facilities, which charge nearly as much. Only people with less than 19,000 in assets can get State-funded care
Table 1: Number of people in the UK receiving long term care services by type of service and funding.
Domiciliary care Number of recipients
Home care 610,000
Community Nursing 530,000
Day care 260,000
Private Help 670,000
Meals 240,000
Institutional care
Residential care Publicly financed 205,000 Total
Privately financed 83,750 288,750
Nursing home care Publicly financed 115,000 Total
Privately financed 42,500 157,500
Hospital 34,000 34,000
482,250
Fear grips old as care home closures rise in property prices and lack of funding create crisis for ageing population Thousands of elderly people in need of residential care are finding it harder to find places as 18 residential homes a week close across Britain. New research confirms that more than 15,000 beds were lost last year, at a time when the population of people over 75 is rising faster than ever.
The crisis is acute in the most affluent areas, where booming property prices put pressure on care homeowners to sell up. Most homes closed over the past year are being converted to residential occupation.
"Help the Aged," says 18 per cent of councils pay less to homes for accommodation than the rates recommended by the Government...