Care minister says that older people are being 'exploited' by care homes' top-up fees

A parliamentary debate on the subject of care home top up fees has raised questions about their necessity. In a speech, Care Minister Norman Lamb said he fears ‘exploitation’ of vulnerable older people over such fees.

Research conducted by older people’s charity, Independent Age has revealed that around three-quarters of councils are failing to protect families from paying unnecessary ‘top-up’ fees for the care of elderly relatives.

Care Minister Norman Lamb said that “the idea of a care home constantly ratcheting the top-up fee to someone who is perhaps in the latter stages of their life, perhaps got dementia, is completely unacceptable exploitation of that individual and should be condemned.”

Former care minister, Paul Burstow, told the debate there is mounting evidence of confusion and rule breaking over the application of top-up fees by local authorities. Mr Burstow cited two examples of unfair top-up fees, one of which concerned an 87-year-old lady who wanted to live closer to her daughter following a spell in hospital.

Mr Burstow said the rules on top up-up fees need to be examined and added: “We need to get this right because top-ups look set to grow in number.”

In response Mr Lamb said he was concerned about the case studies of two older people Mr Burstow had highlighted in his speech. Mr Lamb said they “almost sort of smack of exploitation” of the elderly people involved.

Mr Lamb said care home tops-ups “must be the positive choice on the part of the person, something that they understand, both in terms of costs and consequences, and never something they should feel pushed into doing as a necessity”.

Janet Morrison, chief executive of Independent Age said: “We strongly welcome a debate on the worrying issue of top-up fees from care homes. These are meant to allow families to pay extra for care above a basic standard but many families are in fact paying for basic care that it is really the responsibility of the council to meet. Though councils are supposed to check that families really want to pay extra, most councils don’t even know the true number of top-up fee agreements in their area.

“Families should only have to pay top-up fees as a genuine choice and not because they feel backed into a corner by a council or a care home. They need better advice and information before signing and regular reviews of the agreement. But the problem is not simply down to poor practice – our research shows that it is driven by the widespread underfunding of social care by national as well as local government.”

Read more about Independent Age’s research into care home top-up fees in www.carehome.co.uk/news/article.cfm/id/1564114/mps-call-for-stronger