Selling Up for Mum and Dad Week In Week Out

Three a across Wales people are selling their homes to pay for

their health. Very harsh, paved for everything, home in his castle, mum

has not even passed on. The social services wanted to pay for my mum's

care, or willing to take the house from me. Teenagers was meant to

take care of us from cradle to grave. A lot of bureaucracy.

Families are being denied what they are entitled to. For many elderly

who become ill getting free care is a battle. I shouldn't have to beat

and medical administrator. I just worry I will not be able to go on

caring for Mann. Experts say it is harder to get funding here than in

England. Very angry indeed. It is a This lovely table will have to go.

Those have got to go to the charity shop. There she is, lovely. Julian

Webb and her brother are clearing their mother's house near Cardiff.

-- Julian. Mrs Anna Jenkins is 91. She has become too ill to be cared

for her at home so has gone into a nursing home. She has got

Alzheimer's. Short-term memory loss, she has an underlying heart

condition. That is the year we moved in here. It is a difficult

time. This used to be my old dressing table. They are very happy

with the care at the home, but with fees of more than �2,000 per month

they have been forced to sell their mother's house to pay the bills.

come here on my own sometimes and feel very unhappy and Robert does

the same. But mum hasn't died, we are concentrating on her being

alive and looking after -- after her so we have to be matter-of-fact

about her but we have been rushed and forced at a time when we just

don't want to be doing it. We just want to be it looking after. You

could cry all day but it doesn't get you anywhere. You have just got

to do the best you can with the circumstances you have been given.

Mum and dad were very happy. They lived together here. 47 years. They

were still holding hands. Her dad was a builder and carpenter. They

worked hard, and saved hard, and eventually they bought their own

family home. It is mum's house. If it keeps her comfortable and that

is what is going to happen, that will happen. It is the principle.

Dad worked jolly hard, approves, cold weather, didn't have a pension.

They lived on what he bought him every month. And that is all they

They are not alone. Each year more than 1,000 families in Wales sell

up to pay care home fees. Council rules say if you have assets of

more than �22,500, you have to pay for this type of care. Mums blouse.

That is going? Dad paid all his contributions, all his life. Been

evident in a million years, that all the many dead was saving when

he was cutting back on other things, it didn't matter because they could

have rented a house and used the Many memories. If the main reason

you are in a nursing home is for a healthy lead to the law says the

NHS should pay. Gillian and Robert believe them mother should be

eligible because she is ill but the local health board say she is

simply not ill enough. We are losing her bit by bit. Very slowly,

very sad. In my opinion she is a pretty ill lady. She has got a foot

infection which causes the flesh to rot. She has been lying on a

reclining seat for two months in the day, and then they have to

hoist her to get her into bed and night. She has to be taken to the

toilet. I did know exactly how ill you have to be to get the extra

help. But it would seem a mum I got a nice smile there, haven't

you? Going to have a little yoghurt for me please. It is from the

hospital, they said you have to have it when you don't have much of

your breakfast. Helen Jones is one of Wales 350,000 carers. She has

chosen to look after her mother, Cynthia Molkner, 24 hours a day,

She was once a successful businesswoman. Now she has fescue a

dementia. She has been left bed- bound after his stroke. She was a

model when she was young. She still knows how to play for the camera.

Helen pays �50 per week for council care is to come and twice a day to

wash and change her mother. Everything else she does on her own.

7 o'clock a start. I stop breakfast-time with porridge. Had

Minister her medication. Sometimes she has had in incontinence issue.

-- April on, gloves on, strip the bed. Then the washing machine goes

on, sometimes twice a day. Making big containers full of food. A poor

relation on her hands because of her skin. Pacheco regularly for bed

sores because she is on a special matches in a hospital bed. I have

to make sure she is hydrated. I have to check on her, up to every

15 minutes because she tries to get out of bed sometimes and the first

sign is ins when she puts her knees it. I would just have a quick look

if I may. Helen has been nurse, chef and hospital porter every day

for nearly two years, without a break. Try your hand on the prowl

for me. You have forgotten how, having you. -- towel. Now it is

affecting her health. This is typical. I will be one second.

is the doctor's surgery. Helen has been in for tests. I made good

judgment call and thought there would get better on my own.

Unbelievable. Helen has had no help to pay for respite care because her

mother's assets including the fat are worth more than 22 pairs of

�500. She believes her mother is ill enough to qualify for

continuing health care funding which could pay for respite care.

Just for four weeks per year, it is nothing but it would give me a

chance to recharge my batteries. Every single day of the week

belonged goes off at seven and the I am on the point of exhaustion, to

be honest. Helen's local health board says her mother doesn't

qualify. I feel as if I owned by any my head against a brick wall. I

shouldn't have to be a medical administrator. I am running round

like a headless chicken most of the time. I just wanted to spend the

last few years of my mother being alive in a hand holding situation,

looking through photographs and cuddling. If anything did happen to

Helen Cynthia would have to go into a nursing home and the flat could

be sold to pay for it. Now after almost two years of fighting she

would get legal help. I can't take any more. I can't take any more.

For the fight has gone out of me. I need them to do it for me because I

can't do it any more. Lisa Morgan is one of Britain's leading lawyers,

specialising in elderly care. She has won back over �20 million in

wrongly paid nursing home fees for clients. If you primary need is a

health need you should be the responsibility of the NHS. But it

is a common misconception, if someone needs to go into a nursing

home they have to pay the full cost of their care, and that can include

selling the family home. However the first consideration should be

whether actually the NHS should be paying for their individuals fees

and not the individual themselves. Unfortunately wrong decisions are

make free quickly. And this is what happened to Jane's family when her

father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. This was the very last

place I took him out. When he was in the nursing home.

Alzheimer's worsened and he went into a nursing home in the Newport.

Soon afterwards Jane's mother passed away. Then suddenly they

were hit with care home fees. house was there, and there was

nobody living in it. So we were told we would need to sell the

house so that we could pay for his care. At the time I just didn't

really question it. I thought, that is what you have to do. About a

fortnight after the the house was sold. We had a bill with all back

paid being requested would appear at the time amounted to �11,000.

They continued to pay the nursing home bills for over four years from

the proceeds of the house sale. Until Mr Denham died in 2007, aged

80. Months later Jane learnt they should have been able to save their

family home. I started working for the Alzheimer's Society about a

year after my dad died. And I went to a conference and they were

talking about continuing health care. I hadn't really, I didn't

really know anything about it. I just kept thinking, I'm sure my dad

would have qualified for that, why didn't I know about it? Nobody had

ever mentioned continuing health care funding. I don't think they

would have ever thought that if they will they would have been

expected to pay for it. She took on the system and finally won back

wrongly paid fees of �100,000. look back, it and think how did I

ever let that happen? Why didn't I say to someone, that can't be right,

we should be looking at it. I never did. I think it is because my dad

was in a nursing home, my mum had just passed away, you don't think

logically. You're so emotionally tied up with it all. Jane's case

was one of many successes for solicitor Lisa Morgan. It hinged on

a key High Court ruling. In 1999 was a court of Appeal case which

set the legal parameters of who should be the responsibility of the

NHS. That case said if you primary need is a health need he should be

the NHS's responsibility. It is not as simple as it sounds.

Unfortunately there are very stringent assessments that are used

to assess whether an individual is eligible for continuing care.

to qualify and NHS team assesses patients on air range of categories.

From breathing and behaviour to Continent and could mission. They

have made a very complicated system. There is a lot of bureaucracy.

Families are being denied what they are entitled to.

The Firdenzis have been selling ice-cream here for decades. The

ice-cream is popular, but Marco has had other worries on his mind.

lost my father in 1995. We noticed as a family over a period of time

my mother herself, her condition started to deteriorate,

forgetfulness, confusion about the most simple things. Whether it be

many or cooking. Initially we kind of ignored because we thought it is

a bit of all age, we all forget things. But over a period of time

it became exaggerated. Margaret Firdenzi was diagnosed with

Vascular dementia. Her family rallied round and Markham moved in

to care for her at home. Her condition worsened and she had to

go into a care home. Marco wasn't prepared for what happened next.

Once she was put into a home I was still deemed as the main carer.

Because I was living in a house that my mother had lived in I was

classed as a tenant. Because she had assets of more than �22,500,

including home, they were told the I would then have been made

homeless. I decided to get a solicitor to fight my case. Marco

and his sisters fought for funding and one. Care home fees the 79-

year-old Margaret Firdenzi would be paid by the NHS because her primary

need was judge to be a healthy lead. She essentially has forgotten who

she is. She doesn't know who we are. In terms of memories and

recollection, she has nothing at all. What do you think of those?

She also suffers with diabetes, so she is on medication for VAT and a

special diet. She does not have the ability to walk any more so she is

in a wheelchair. She has no capacity to do anything. She is

either lying in bed or sat in her chair.

The due enjoy that? But in 20th August 10, and new qualification

system was introduced. She was reassessed and her family was told

she no longer measured up. They now have to pay the care fees

themselves. Is there a way out? Can you see a resolution? If I

persevere there will be a resolution. But I don't think there

are steps in place to make it any easier, the process. In some ways

that there are barriers intentionally put there to put

people off. I feel at some stage, the authorities feel that it may be

as an individual I will give up the fight. But I won't. He is planning

to take his case to an independent NHS review. This family are not

alone in being reassessed using the new guidelines. My understanding

and speaking to families is it has become more difficult. In the cases

were people used to be eligible, they on now found on eligible and

have to pay their own fees. I know one person who suffered from

dementia, he cannot talk, he cannot eat or walk. The NHS are now saying

he is not eligible because the assessment tool has changed. Been

to the home this morning. Nothing much has changed. No new triggers

for mum to be seen... Gillian Webb has just come back from visiting

her mother. And nursing team has been there all morning to see if

she can qualify for funding. Apparently she doesn't. They said

there were no triggers. These triggers, there is a list of them

and unless they are displayed on the day when they come, there is no

reason for them to instigate a review for continuing health care.

They don't feel at the moment my mother is in that category. Gillian

has had to sell her mother's house to pay nursing home fees. But she

still qualifies her mother is ill enough to qualify for funding, so

she is determined to take the matter further. We have been

discussing it with a solicitor and they seem to think there is

reasonable cause to look into it. But that in itself is going to take

time. Everything is going to take time. My mother is 92 this year and

I think time is on their side, not mine. We are in Swansea to meet

Professor Dame June Clark, a former President of the Royal College of

Nursing and was a member of the Royal Commission on long-term care.

We showed her the evidence starting with the papers relating to Gillian

Webb's mother, Anne Jenkins. This lady has obviously got physical

health needs. She certainly needs constant monitoring and supervision

by a registered nurse. From what she has seen, she is concerned Anne

Jenkins has been turned down the NHS funding. It is not about what

this lady needs, but get her off my budget. She also reviewed Margaret

Firdenzi's case. I would expect over time her needs to increase.

She needs repeated assessments. Again, based on the evidence, she

has worries about the decision to refuse Margaret Firdenzi. The real

summary of this case and perhaps many others, is this is not an

assessment about this person's needs. It is simply a form to fill

in that says this comes off your budget, not of mind. Anne Jenkins's

Health Board, Cardiff and their university told us they were unable

to comment on individual cases. But said their assessment process is in

line with guidance from the Welsh Government. Has that guidance are

made a difference to the number of patients qualifying for funding. We

have found in the last year since the new guidance came in, 314 fewer

people have qualified for funding in Walsh nursing homes, a drop of

almost 7%. It is another day and Helen is thinking of new ways of

raising money to help pay for the carers that come in. They are

gathering dust. Nobody is going to wear them. I have to pay the carers

that come in because we get charged �200 a month. That is why I put

them on eBay. It is to help towards paying for everything. I have only

got my pension and mum's pension now. Why doesn't Cynthia Molkner

and hundreds like her qualify for NHS funding? On cognition we have

high. For Helen, it boils down to ticking boxes. The nursing team

assesses the patient's condition in key areas. It he don't get enough

tics, you don't qualify for funding. Mental health lower this time. Last

October, high. Communication, moderate, a moderate. There is no

question, it is high. I sat there until I was blue in the face.

Incontinence, moderate. She is doubly incontinent. Why doesn't

Cynthia Molkner qualified? We went back to the nursing expert,

Professor Dame June Clark. This lady is completely helpless. The

only reason she survives at all is because she has an angel for a

daughter who is providing the care one would normally expect her to

get within the NHS. For me, this case is all about being fair. It is

not about an assessment of need. This old lady is completely

helpless. The need is proven. Merthyr Tydfil, and an independent

NHS panel has been considering the Firdenzi's's case. It is very

disappointing. It is very disheartening because if Margaret

Firdenzi does not meet the criteria, then you have to be on your

deathbed. We are gutted. We tried our best. We are a bit emotional

that we did not win today. And very nerve-wracking day. They are going

to appeal. His family are not alone in believing they have been wrongly

charged care home fees. Nearly 2000 families are waiting for their

cases to be dealt with. Wales public service ombudsman has

created a new system to deal with the backlog, but it won't be

cleared until 2014. Clearly not happy it is taking so long. But the

balance is right given the resources available. It is a shame

the backlog was allowed to build up in the first place. For people who

have paid into the NHS all their life, had the rules changed halfway

through the game? The rules have changed constantly. It is not just

the legislation and the guidance, but the precedent set by different

court cases. Trying to understand on what basis the decision is made

is very difficult for people. is waiting for another assessment,

a team is coming to the flat. time now is 11:10am, I have taken a

couple of Kalms. Whether they will work, I do not know. I am just

hoping, I am praying actually, they will see I am at the end of my

tether and I just desperately need to recharge my batteries. That is

all I'm asking for, nothing more. They will decide if a mother is ill

enough to qualify for funding, which will pay for respite care to

give Helen a break. And guarantee nursing home fees will be paid if

anything should happen to Helen. She used to fight for a cause as

well, so I think she would be proud of me for standing up for her

rights. That is what I believe I am doing. I hope I am doing the right

thing. Lisa Morgan believes the scales are tipped against dementia

sufferers in Wales because of the way the condition is scored. In

England, someone with end stage dementia could score severe in the

cognition category. In Wales, that Scott will be high. That could mean

the difference of a patient qualifying for funding or not.

Because they are mobile, they cannot communicate. They need care

being provided, but they're not very unpredictable because they are

at their end stage like. When you use this assessment tool it is

difficult to score high if you are endstage dementia. It is more

difficult to score high in England than in Wales? So it is more

difficult to get the care paid for? Yes and Tippett in your favour.

Dementia charities are concerned. We have a less effective decision

support tools and is useful for us and is less good than the English

one. It hurts me to say that, but nevertheless it is true. We asked

the Welsh Government for an interview, but it declined. In a

statement it said the decision support tool was not designed to

directly determine eligibility. Professional judgment it will be

necessary in all cases to ensure the overall level of need is

correctly determined. They added a comprehensive review of the

continuing health care framework would be complete by next summer.

Helen is meeting with the assessors has not gone well. I am absolutely

defeated. All that effort, from 6 am this morning. Two hours later...

No respite. At least no non means- tested respite. The University

Health Board told us Helen's mother does not continue -- qualified.

Because her needs, whilst needing to be constant are not complex and

occasionally able to follow the assembly's guidelines. I am just

worried something will happen to me. And I won't be able to go on caring

for Maugham. Over the years, there have been

various studies of long-term care. But for the current generation of

elderly, there are still no answers. It is a scandal it has been left

for so long. This problem won't go away. It will get worse, and worse

unless we tackle it. Until a long- term solution is found, families