Sheffield care home charges could bankrupt us, says husband

A Sheffield man has said his wife’s care fees could leave him bankrupt.

Sue Stone, 73, suffers from dementia and lives at Moorend Place care home in Walkley, where her care costs around £63,000 a year.

Her husband Paul, 74, said taxes had risen by 15 per cent in the past two years, adding: “It takes a lot of what we have.”

Roseberry Care Centres, which runs Moorend Place, said it did not take pricing decisions lightly and that higher energy and food prices, as well as increases in the minimum wage and living wage, had driven the rise in fees.

Mr Stone told the BBC he had to cut back on spending and was considering downsizing his home to afford his wife’s care.

He said: “I’m not bankrupt but my wife is 73 and that could be many years before I’m probably bankrupt.”

Mrs Stone receives £12,275 a year in NHS-funded healthcare, which goes towards costs, but more than £50,000 of the tax is paid for by the couple’s savings and pensions.

Mr Stone said private care companies were taking advantage of self-funded care home users following councils’ underfunding.

“So we are hit twice – the first time I have to pay my taxes and the second time I have to pay more than the local authority pays. I think it’s terribly unfair,” he said.

“All of this hurts, the emotional pain is terrifying going through all of this.”

He added that he wants to make it easier for people like his wife to access financial support to help pay for care.

NHS South Yorkshire said it had a robust assessment process when it came to determining what funding people were eligible for and that all decisions were quality assured by a senior healthcare professional.

It also said it had an appeals process for people who are not satisfied with the outcome of the assessment.

A spokesman for Roseberry Care Centers said: “Unfortunately, the decisions to change our rates have had to be made to reflect the increased costs facing the whole industry and indeed the country, including higher prices at energy and food and the national minimum wage and the national wage. The living wage is going up.”