‘Financial fiasco’ as care charges rocket by 45%

A HUGE increase in care charges for residents of old folks’ homes has been defended by council officials amid accusations of a ‘funding fiasco’.

Clients of Scottish Borders Council-run care homes have seen their bills rocket by 45 per cent; the weekly charges in SBC’s six establishments have gone from £451 to £591 – a hike of more than £600 a month.

And a delay in calculating this new rate has seen residents and their families facing backlog payments of up to £6,800 because standing orders they authorised before March 30 were not implemented by the council for three months.

Although the council has now apologised for the delay, the rise in charges and news of the backpayment came as a shock to the family of an 89-year-old man, a resident of 28-bedroom Dunwhinny Lodge in Peebles. As his capital exceeds the £22,500 threshold, he pays all charges in full, without welfare assistance.

“One can only question the administrative ability and the lack of planning which resulted in this fiasco,” said the man’s daughter this week.

“I would prefer you did not use my name because my father is unaware of what has happened and it would undoubtedly upset him, but I feel we deserve an explanation from a social work department which styles itself as providing a caring service for older people.”

The new charges have been applied across the board, despite the fact an internal council review has concluded three of the six SBC-run homes now fail to meet national care standards.

One of those is Dunwhinny Lodge. “The bedrooms are small which limits the use of moving and handling equipment, placing both residents and staff at risk, and there are no en suite facilities, which are expected as standard in today’s care homes,” revealed the report.

Dunwhinny will be decommissioned and replaced by an extra care housing department which the Eildon Housing Association expects to complete by 2012. The other substandard homes are at Waverley in Galashiels and Saltgreens in Eyemouth.

The irate daughter first learned of the arrears payment from her father’s bank statement.

“My sister and I, who attend to my father’s affairs, queried this with the social work department to be told the standing order had expired on March 30, despite the fact we had returned the correctly completed form by that date.

“We were told all standing orders expired on that date and they had a huge backlog to deal with. We did not receive notice of this administrative problem until this month, by which time three payments had been missed.

“While not all of the arrears will be £6,800 – my father pays the full amount for his care – it does not take a mathematical genius to work out the money outstanding to a council with cashflow problems was significant.

“We have now been asked to pay an extra £600 a month in order, we are told, to pay female carers the same as men.