Friday, 29 Mar 2024

Social care crisis: Expert reveals issue ‘surprising number of elderly people don’t know’

Social health expert, Mario Ambrosi, spoke to Express.co.uk about the burning issues in the care industry at the moment. Mr Ambrosi is the director of communications for Anchor Hanover, England’s largest provider of older people’s care and housing. Considering the large role the NHS and social care crisis is playing in the upcoming general election, he spoke to us about the biggest problems elderly people are facing right now.

He told Express.co.uk: “The things that worry older people the most aren’t really different from the things that worry younger people.

“I suppose it boils down to your health and your wealth, that’s really what it’s about.

“The difficulty in terms of social care is that a lot of older people who’ve worked hard through their lives, have paid their taxes, a lot of people expect that when you get older and you need care, that it’s going to be paid for by the state, by the NHS.

“A surprising number of people don’t realise that if you have, say, cancer then your care is paid for by the NHS.”

He continued: “Whereas if you have dementia, which is deemed a social care issue, that is something that you are financially responsible for.

“The issue is that your health and your wealth are really interconnected.

“If you have a need that requires residential care then potentially is impacts on your financial health as well.”

The health expert also issued a prophetic warning that the whole care system needed “fixing” soon because a “potentially much larger group of people” are going to rely on the state in the future.

Mr Ambrosi told Epress.co.uk: “This is what the current system is based on.

“When you need care, if you’ve got more than £23,000, including the value of your house, then it’s down to you to pay for your care.

“So for large numbers of people, they have to sell their home in order to fund their care. That’s not an ideal solution.”

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He continued: “But it’s even more challenging if you don’t actually own a home, because where is the money going to come from?

“So potentially you’ve got a much larger group of people coming through who are going to be expecting the state to fund their care because they simply don’t have a housing asset.

“This is why this whole system needs fixing.

“Not simply for the older people of today, but for the older people of tomorrow.”

Currently, if a person’s capital is above £23,250 they’re likely to have to pay their care fees. If their capital is under £23,250 they might get some help from the local council, but may still need to contribute towards the fees.

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