The human factor

摘要

Ann Reid's mother, Peggy Belcher, is 94 and has dementia. She has lived in a care home for the past eight years. Ann sold her mother's home for £176,00c) to pay for care home fees and, over the years, she has paid out £222,000 in care home costs. The amount of money involved is eye-watering and it is for cases such as this that Andrew Dilnot's reforms, which will introduce a limited cap on the cost of care, have been widely welcomed. Ann, perhaps surprisingly, did not object to her mother being required to pay for her care. What she did object to was the council's view that, because her mother paid for her own care, she was 'not their problem'.