To make matters worse, Marion’s dementia means she needs home visits by carers, which cost roughly £1,000 a week.
She does not know what the family will do if her mother also has to move into care, but their home would probably have to be sold.
“If my mother went into a care home, they could have to sell the house, and we’d have to start funding my father’s care again. The value of their house would probably only last about four years, with the two of them in care at £17,000 a month. There’s no way of doing it more cheaply, which is what I slightly object to, because they’ve both got dementia.”
‘I’ve had to fight the whole time she’s been in care’
Even when the local authority funds your care, the process is still far from easy – as the Masons found out.
When Diane Mason’s assets dropped below the £23,250 threshold, the council told her husband, Tom, that she would have to move to a cheaper care home if it was to pay.
Diane, 79, has dementia and had been living in a specialist home for more than a year and a half.
But one of the homes the council recommended was more than an hour’s drive away from where Tom, 76, lives in Kent. Others had bad reviews. Tom pushed back.