Pensioners what's the point in trying?

[MoonRocker]

work hard all your life to provide an income so not be dependent on the state, what happens? You get hammered, forced to sell house to pay for care etc taxed on what income you do get and generally treated as a second class pensioner, second class that is to the lazy done nothing life long scroungers who now get everything free! Brilliant! So please people tell me what is the point? As far as I can tell it's better to spend what you earn save nothing and arrive at retirement age absolutely potless! If the governement wants to sort things out then I reckon this is a huge anomoly with which to get started.

[emmie]

most of the ones i have visited should be condemned.

[ummmm]

Maybe we're just lucky then.

[emmie]

a few relatives have worked in some of these places, and now a relative is in one, and i can safely say it's a pit.

[ummmm]

I don't understand it. Paying approx £500 minimum per week per person, how the hell can they be a pit? Especially considering most of the staff are on minimum wage.

[seadogg]

Bent axle, I think what you wish for will come in time but too late for our generation I suspect.

[LoftyLottie]

My mother was in a very good carehome at the end of her life, after being in some appalling ones. No way can anyone say that a carehome is like being in your own home, especially if the elderly person has all their faculties. I just hope to die quickly, even if still youngish, than ever have to go in a care home and just sit and wait to die.

We have worked all our lives to buy and maintain our own home, with no handouts from parents, etc. I fail to see why I should sacrifice my home to get the same care as someone who has no assets. Having no assets doesn't mean that someone is poor necessarily. Some people spend loads more than we have ever done and have much better life styles than we have had owning our own home. I am not envious of them, I am what I am and am proud of that, but it is totally unfair that someone like me will have to sell our family home whilst others get the same treatment in care homes paid by the state.

[askyourgran]

If we sell our main asset (our home) to pay for care, we'll have very little to pass on to our family. I dread the idea of being institutionalised paying through the nose for what we've worked and already taxed for. While others who cry poverty have the same attention. Or should I say I don't begrudge them the care but it's hardly fair on those who pay. All stuck together waiting for god. How can some of these care home ask for such huge sums of money per patient per week? Are the costs regulated. I know someone who still takes her mother's washing home.

[LoftyLottie]

There are many care homes that are 'pits' ummmm, I can assure you and the fees are extremely high. The ultimate aim of most private care homes is to rake in the dosh. I have been appalled by what I have witnessed in care homes. I am more frightened of going in a care home that I am of dying.

[ummmm]

We take our grand parents washing home.

[seadogg]

I know several people who own or have owned care homes. They just dont know what to do with all the money they have made and the open contempt one shows for his charges is frightening.

[DaisyNonna]

bednobs, how many people want to move into a care home? Neither caring nor a home. Just the next step before the grave.

[LoftyLottie]

The worse thing that has happened is the decline in County Council care homes and privatisation of care. Even social services use contract care companies nowadays. As if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. Some care assistants are very good, but they are few and far between. And the training is appalling.

I had no choice but to let my mother go into a care home, she was physically disabled and I couldn't cope. I will carry the guilt with me until I die. Fortunately we found an OK one after a few disasters, but they are not nice places.

[LoftyLottie]

You are right Daisy.

[dzug2]

<<Please explain why should they should have to do this when those who have contributed the square root of f&%k all can get the same treatment for nothing. >>

But they don't get it for nothing. They pay ALL their income bar nominal pocket money for it.

Though it sounds as though a consensus is developing among some on here that those who have money should be paid for by the state, those who don't should be denied care.

[LoftyLottie]

I certainly do not think that the wealthy should get state care and the poor should not. But neither do I think that someone who owns their own home is necessarily more wealthy than someone who rents. Most people who own their own homes have less spending power than those who rent. They are not rich people, they are people that have been brought up to think that you should work work and make sacrifices to be able to buy your own home. You fork out a huge amount on a mortgage all your life, have to do all your own maintence and then have to sell your house to get the care that others make no sacrifices for.

[askyourgran]

I worked temporarily in a nursing home on reception over a Christmas period. That was enough for me. If I had worked there longer I would have
decked one of the nurses -a real bitch. One lady fell out of bed on night and broke her collar bone. The nurses had to rummage through the rubbish bin to find a bandage to make a sling for her. So I too would hate to end my days cooped up with other old people. They did have a laundry service, although I don't know whether that was an extra. It was in excess of £600 pw then.

[LoftyLottie]

'work hard'

[LoftyLottie]

In my experience the laundry service is appalling and lots of old people don't even get their own clothes back. I was for ever turfing other peoples clothes out mum's warddrobe. On one occasion when I arrived she was wearing track suit trousers belonging to an elderly gentleman at the home. All her clothes were labelled.

[bentaxle]

I cant understand where all this dementia and the likes is coming from I cant remember as a young man seeing it and there wasn't all these care homes then

[ummmm]

People cared for their elderly relatives. It's not so feasible nowadays. In many cases, due to the cost of living, both partners have to work.