Does Somerset Really Care?
Today a Somerset scandal. Elderly people in desperate need of care are left to wait months for Somerset Council to get around to assessing their needs and their finances in order to get that care.
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Does Somerset Council really care?
by Susannah Hickling
What happens in this country when you’re older and can’t look after yourself? You pay for your own care until your funds have dwindled to £23,250 and then the local authority intervenes. At this point, the council contributes to your social care bills and finally picks up the whole tab when you’re down to your last £14,250.
So far so depressing. But there’s worse if you live in Somerset. Here elderly and disabled people are waiting months on end for the care and financial assessments they need before the council will agree to fund their care. Meanwhile, they and their loved ones are being forced to live with crippling uncertainty on top of chronic conditions. In some cases they are running out of money to pay their carers.
One Taunton resident, aged 70, is at the end of his tether. His wife, also 70, is wheelchair bound with multiple sclerosis. Since autumn 2022, after her condition worsened, carers have come into their home twice a day – two are needed to operate the hoist which is required to lift her from her bed or her wheelchair. This costs £1,100 a week for a total of 14 hours’ care. The couple previously spent £20,000 adapting their home to cope with her mobility issues and when her husband, who looks after her when the carers aren’t there, takes a much-needed break, she has to pay nursing home fees to the tune of around £6,000 a month.
Last December, when her finances started to run low, her husband contacted Somerset Council adult social services to ask for a care and, importantly, a financial assessment. He waited for an appointment to come through, expecting the council to get back to him within a few weeks. But months passed with no date forthcoming, even though both he and his daughter regularly chased social workers. Meanwhile, his wife’s bank balance dropped to zero and she was also diagnosed with dementia. Since then, her husband, who is self-employed and still works occasionally to top up his state pension, has been forced to pay for her carers out of his own funds, something he is neither expected nor legally required to do. He does it because he is terrified his paralysed wife’s care will stop while she waits for an equally paralysed council to assess her.
This limbo has taken a toll on his mental health, with his GP diagnosing him with depression. “I can’t make any decisions about my wife’s future or indeed mine,” he explains. “Unless I know what social services say she needs, I can’t look at what to do. Not having the assessments is holding up other decisions. That’s what’s stressful. It’s wearing and worrying and uncertain, and it’s made me irritable and anxious.”