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Gordon Lishman‚ Director General of Age Concern said:

“Far too many families only find out the real cost of the care home on or after the day that their vulnerable relative needs to move into residential care. This can make a distressing time even more stressful.

“Three in four families are now being unfairly asked to pay a top-up fee – up from one in three just two years ago. These people are being routinely asked to fund the gap between the arbitrary price the local authority will pay for residential care and the price that the care home is asking for. This is in spite of clear directions to the contrary.

“Those who are paying all their care fees themselves‚ are also being charged extra in some cases. ‘Self-funders’ are effectively subsidising residents whose care is being paid for by the state‚ because of the low amount paid by local authorities.

“We want CSCI to investigate any council that is charging a top-up fee to more than half of its residents or where there is evidence that self-funders are cross-subsidising others. We also want it to give those councils help with the commissioning process‚ so that there are a range of residential homes at the local authority price.”

-ENDS-

The Office of Fair Trading issued a report two years ago as the result of a supercomplaint by Which? four years ago.

Three years ago‚ the then minister stated “it is totally unacceptable for residents or their relatives to pick up the tab week-in‚ week-out as the result of poor commissioning practice by councils.”