Anger As Councils Given Power To Seize Pensioners’ Homes To Pay For Rising Care Costs

Homes of the elderly and vulnerable are being taken by local authorities to pay for residential care bills. Deferred Payment Agreements (DFA) see elderly people hand over their properties to councils which then hold the homes as collateral and cover costs on their behalf. The homes can then be legally seized by the council once a person dies, to cover their debts. According to early NHS figures, 55 councils have taken part in the scheme with 2,895 DFAs currently in place. There are around 400,000 people living in care homes across the country with bills costing people and their families a fortune. Plans to introduce a cap on social care costs this year have been delayed by the Government until 2020, amid fears over how councils could fund the move. Read more on the Daily Mail website.

Housing Crisis: The Next Problem Area Will Be Retirement Homes

At the heart of difficulties in residential care lies the ageing of the UK population. The effects of improved life expectancy are most obvious among over 85s, for whom the cost of care is greatest and whose number is forecast to grow by 18 per cent over the next five years. The over 65s group is close behind at 12 per cent. At the same time, people are increasingly choosing new forms of accommodation in later life such as assisted living, relocating earlier while living for longer. Altogether this will generate a fresh tide in demand for residential care, set to rise 15 per cent between 2015/16 and 2020/211. Presently swelling demand is outpacing supply, where a bottleneck is holding back investment. Read more on the City AM website.

Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Mr Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will meet providers of (a) supported housing and (b) specified housing to discuss the effect of the proposed change to social rents on the viability of those types of housing.

Brandon Lewis: We welcome the opportunity to engage with the supported housing sector to understand how the sector’s views can best be accommodated as we implement our policy. Ministers and officials have been discussing this issue with the National Housing Federation and a number of providers. We plan to except specialised supported housing, residential care homes, nursing homes and PFI-funded Extra Care housing from the rent reductions. We are continuing to work with the sector on this issue to ensure the most vulnerable are protected.

Government Wants Tenants in Old People’s Homes

The government has confirmed plans to place council tenants in the homes of older people going into residential care, in an attempt to boost Britain's housing stock.  Current plans for long term care reform would leave a number of properties empty and local authorities are discussing whether the empty properties could be used to house council tenants in their boroughs.

A source with links to Westminster said the idea was being discussed at a ‘high level of government’ and that ‘it was being considered’ as a way to improve social housing stocks.  ‘It is difficult to oppose it in the situation where you have homeless people and housing sitting empty,’ he said but added that there was a stumbling block in the government’s plan over who would pay for the maintenance of any private property with social housing tenants. Read more on the Citywire Money website.