Elderly must pay cost of care, judge rules

Charities warned of a return to the "Poor Law" as a judge ruled yesterday that hard-up councils can make pensioners pay for care home accommodation until their assets run out.

The decision, a second blow for the elderly, follows the House of Lords' ruling last week that local authorities can take into account the amount of resources the elderly and disabled have when providing community home care services for them.

"The cold hard fact is this: Money has now become the overriding issue in the care of older people," said Michael Lake, director general of Help the Aged, which brought yesterday's test case against Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council along with care home residents Cyril Pinch, 92, and Charlotte Blanchard, 86.

Government guidelines brought in last April say that people with capital of pounds 10,000 or less should be treated as "unable to pay" for accommodation, but those with between pounds 10,000 and pounds 16,000 should contribute to the costs. People with above pounds 16,000 must meet the whole cost.

Help the Aged complained that Sefton Council was unlawfully expecting the elderly to make contributions to their care home until they were down to their last pounds 1,500 - the cost of a funeral.

But the council argued that shortage of money from the Government meant it could not afford to fund the private residential and nursing home fees of those with assets.

In a ruling which will affect local authorities nationwide, Mr Justice Howett ruled that the authority was acting within its powers and was entitled to take into account its own resources when assessing needs.

He distinguished Mr Pinch's case from that of Mrs Blanchard however. Mr Pinch's place at The Glade rest home in Birkdale, Southport, had been funded from the start by the local authority and had only later been withdrawn when his capital went above pounds 16,000.

When his care home bills again reduced his resources to below pounds 16,000, the council had applied its pounds 1,500 threshold policy and refused to make any further contributions. Mr Justice Howett said the council's stance in the case of Mr Pinch, a diabetic widower, had been "unlawful" and ordered it to restore the contributions.

But Mrs Blanchard, who suffers from severe memory loss, had paid her own care home bills at the Warren Park Nursing Home, Blundellsands, Liverpool. When she sought a community care assessment, the council refused to help until her savings had fallen below pounds 16,000. Yesterday the court ruled that the council had no duty to arrange accommodation for her because they were entitled to take into account her remaining savings and her own resources.

Help the Aged's head of planning, Tessa Harding, said: "This judgment blows a hole through community care policy and makes government assurances to older people meaningless. It takes us straight back to the Poor Law."

Jean Gould, project solicitor for the Public Law Project warned that the decision nullified last year's regulations: "This ruling will mean that local authorities will be able to refuse to arrange to provide residential care for the elderly solely because they have a little money in the bank."

Sally Greengross, director of Age Concern England, said: "The reality of this means that local authorities have an open door to avoid funding care for older people who have some savings or assets. The key problem remains. There is simply not enough money to provide all the services that older people need."