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peter forster



 

Campaign to outlaw discriminatory pricing in Residential Care Homes

Imagine going into a supermarket and being asked at the checkout about your finances and then your answers determining what you will pay for your products. I'm sure most people would be appalled and yet this is exactly what happens in the residential care home market.

In many homes, when the owners or managers have ascertained a potential resident won't qualify for local authority funding, they quote a price that is substantially higher than will be paid for someone who does qualify. And these different prices will be for exactly the same care package!

Considering a move into residential care is very stressful for both the elderly person and their family. It is highly unlikely, therefore, when they are visiting a home they will be aware of different prices applying. They would probably never think an organisation in the 'caring' industry would exploit them at this moment of vulnerability. I believe this type of pricing strategy amounts to financial exploitation and abuse of elderly people. Care Home owners cannot even justify the price difference by arguing that a local authority is getting a discount for bulk purchase of care because very few councils purchase beds in bulk.

I believe one reason this unfair system prevails is that home owners exploit the minimum contact residents’ family members have with each other, preventing them exerting collective buyer power. If you or a relative have suffered from the pricing practices described above or you just think it is fundamentally wrong then -

What can you do?

  • Click here to read the Middlesbrough case

  • Do your own research by contacting homes and asking for their prices. Many will ask you whether the person for whom you are telephoning is going to be self funding or LA funded. Say you don' know at this stage and ask if it makes a difference. If the home is practising discriminatory pricing they may well give you the two prices.

  • Get the support of your MP (although I'm still waiting for over a year for a reply from my relative's).

  • Ask local councillors to press their local authority Adult Care department into investigating any homes practising discriminatory pricing. Raise a safeguarding alert of financial abuse with the local authority if you or your relative are personally affected.

  • Most councils will have a scrutiny committee for adult care. They are quite entitled to call to account those homes receiving substantial amounts of public money to supply care. Contact the chair of your local council committee and ask them to review homes from whom the council is buying substantial numbers of care beds. Identify where the council is purchasing care by raising a Freedom of Information request

  • If you are in the Middlesbrough area please email me so we can act collectively at a local level.



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