South Lanarkshire defends huge increase in care home fees

One man, whose 82-year-old mother has advanced dementia and has been a resident at McKillop for around seven years, said it came as a "bolt from the blue".

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He said: "There was no advance warning from the council. No consultation.

"We received the letter out of the blue on the Saturday of the Easter weekend, and it stated that the bank direct debit was going to change from April 9.

"There was no time to do anything about it, and of course you couldn't get hold of anyone at the council because it was a bank holiday weekend.

"There's been no apology for the lack of communication, or the fact that those kind of timescales would cause families difficulties.

"They're more than doubling what people are paying, and you've got to get finances in place to have money in people's bank accounts for the first payment."

The man, who did not want to be identified in case it caused repercussions for his mother, stressed that McKillop was a "fantastic facility" and he had expected fees to go up due energy prices and inflation.

However, he was shocked by the scale of the increase. His mother had been paying around £577 per week, and in the past fees had risen by around 4-5% per year.

She is among 42 "self-funding" residents living at South Lanarkshire's five council-operated care homes - two of which are set to close later this year under cost-cutting measures.

Care home residents in Scotland with savings, property or investments in excess of £35,000 are required to pay the full costs of their care home place, while those with capital under £21,500 are covered by the local authority.

The fees charged for self-funded care versus publicly-funded care has widened (NB: graph show average costs across all care home types: council, private, charity) (Image: PHS)

Over the past decade, the amount levied on self-funders compared to council-funded residents has widened, leading to accusations that better-off elderly people are being used unfairly to "prop up" the ailing care sector.

Members of South Lanarkshire's Integrated Joint Board - which oversees health and social care in the region - voted in March to close McClymont House in Lanark and Dewar House in Hamilton despite overwhelming local opposition.

The closures are expected to deliver savings of £1.5m a year in the face of a £19.5m shortfall in its adult social care budget this year, and a project shortfall of £9m in 2025/26.

The Scottish Government has rejected pleas to step in with emergency cash despite the homes' high ratings from inspectors.

The McKillop resident's son said the 42 self-funders were being asked "to fill the black hole" in the council's finances.

He added: "It's victimisation of the most vulnerable people in society. Most of the people in these care homes are incapacitated mentally - they don't understand what's going on.

"It's very easy for the council to go 'we'll just take the money from them'."

Family members praised the facility as 'fantastic', but have been left angered by the council's communication surrounding huge fee increases (Image: Newsquest)

A second woman, whose 93-year-old mother - a resident at McKillop for three years who has dementia, is partially blind, and deaf - said her weekly charges have gone up by 130%, from £529 previously.

She said had to "jump through hoops" with the bank to ensure that sufficient funds were transferred in time after receiving the letter from the council on Good Friday.

She said: "There was no prior warning. At first I thought it must be a mistake, because there were no figures to explain why it's going up so much or what it's being spent on.

"It feels like 'we've got this black hole, and your Mum's going to help fill it'. It was awful."

The woman, who also asked not to be named, said her parents had "scrimped and saved" to buy their house and it "would kill" her mother to know that it had been sold to fund her care home.

She added: "It's the last thing she wanted. I have no complaints about McKillop - they're absolutely excellent.

"It's a beautiful place, the staff are great. But she's just a poor soul, and there's nothing else we can do."

The council argues that it could no longer afford to subsidise lower fees, which have been comparatively cheaper than those charged to self-funders in private homes (Image: Getty)

Council-run premises have tended to charge much less than private care homes, but South Lanarkshire Council said it could no longer afford to subsidise these lower fees. 

As of 2022, the average charge for a self-funding resident without nursing care in South Lanarkshire was £911 per week, suggesting that the council's rates have - until now - lagged well behind those charged by private homes.

The council says that the true cost of providing its in-house residential care is £1,469.73 per week, which equates to just over £1,221 once the free personal care allowance of £248.70 is deducted. 

A spokesman for the council said the increase in fees comes "against a backdrop of unprecedented financial challenges" which means the council "no longer has the funding available to provide the same number and level of services that have been provided in previous years". 

He added: “Whilst the council regrets the need to increase charges across services, as an organisation we must reflect our charging based on the true cost of delivering the current service.

"In terms of how this charge is applied individually, each resident’s financial circumstances are taken into account through a Financial Assessment to ensure that these charges do not result in financial hardship based on their income available.

“As part of the implementation of the revised charge, all residents affected have been offered the opportunity to have their circumstances reviewed, through a financial re-assessment.

"Both residents and relatives will be actively engaged in this process.”

Charges vary between council areas, but the year-on-year increase in South Lanarkshire is much bigger than anything agreed so far by other local authorities (Image: Getty)

The Herald also contacted other council areas around Scotland to ask what was happening to fees in their areas.

Several local authorities - including Stirling, Inverclyde, East Dunbartonshire, North Lanarkshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Moray, and Aberdeen - no longer have any council care homes.

• Fife, which has eight council care homes, said it had imposed a 5% uplift this year but charges council-funded and self-funding residents the same fees.
• Highland, which has 14 council care homes currently operational, said its fees for 2024/25 will be considered at a meeting of its Adults Social Care Fees Group later this month.
• Glasgow, which has five council care homes, increased its standard fees from £704 to £739 and from £1,023 to £1,074 for residents needing dementia care, but charges the same to council-funded and self-funding residents.
• North Ayrshire operates one council care home - Montrose House on the Isle of Arran. In 2023/24, it charged self-funding residents between £719.50 to £1312.50 per week depending on their levels of capital and care needs. This has increased by around 5% to between £825.94-£1,378 per week in 2024/25.
• East Lothian, which has two council-run residential care homes and one nursing home operated by its health and social care partnership (HSCP), has not yet set its fees for 2024/25. However, it charged self-funding residents between £1,117 and £1,318 per week last year.
• In Falkirk, which has four council care homes, the charges have gone up by 8.5% from £978 to £1061 per week, while in East Renfrewshire - which has one council care home - they are up by 4.4%, from £874 to £913.
• West Dunbartonshire council said it had agreed to increase fees by 10% in light of a £17m budget gap in 2024/25. As a result, fees for self-funders at its two elderly care homes have gone from £1,161 to £1,277.
• West Lothian, which has three council care homes for older people, said it had updated its fees in line with national guidance that local authorities should charge "an amount equivalent to the full cost of providing the accommodation". This has resulted in fees for self-funding residents increasing by 32%, from £739 to £976 per week, once the free personal care allowance is included. For existing residents who self-fund their care, the increase will be spread over a two year period.

A spokesman for West Lothian Council said the revised care home charges will "[support] the future sustainability of social care services at a time of significant increases in care demands and resource pressure".