Residential Care (Hansard, 1 May 1995)

§ Mr. Roger Evans

The latest figures, for November 1994, show that 84,000 people in nursing homes have preserved rights to the old system of income support limits. In addition, a total of 80,000 people have income support which includes residential allowance, meaning that they have been placed in nursing homes or residential care homes under the community care scheme. For these cases, it is not possible to distinguish nursing home residents from those in residential care homes.

Costings are not available for November 1994. The cost of income support for residents in nursing homes in the financial year 1993–94 was £1,280 million under the old

					Claimants with deductions for:
		(a) Community charge	¹(b) Fuel	²(c) Social Fund
	All claimants	Number	Per cent.	Estimated annual cash value £	Number	Per cent.	Estimated annual cash value £	Number	Per cent.	Estimated annual cash value £
1990
Great Britain	4,180,000	8,000	0.2	2,600,000	183,000	4.4	105,100,000	383,000	9.2	106,900,000
North Eastern	674,000	3,000	0.4	800,000	41,000	6.1	25,500,000	72,000	10.7	18,500,000
London North	638,000	2,000	0.3	600,000	22,000	3.4	12,400,000	40,000	6.3	12,700,000
South Western	274,000	—	—	—	7,000	2.6	4,500,000	17,000	6.2	4,900,000
Wales	248,000	—	—	100,000	10,000	4.0	5,200,000	24,000	9.7	6,900,000
Midlands	665,000	1,000	0.2	300,000	13,000	2.0	7,000,000	54,000	8.1	16,000,000
North Western	643,000	1,000	0.2	200,000	25,000	3.9	14,300,000	65,000	10.1	17,200,000
Scotland	481,000	—	—	—	47,000	9.8	26,400,000	75,000	15.6	19,300,000
London South	558,000	2,000	0.4	500,000	17,000	3.0	9,800,000	36,000	6.5	11,400,000
1991
Great Britain	4,487,000	34,000	0.8	3,600,000	200,000	4.5	119,800,000	443,000	9.9	127,400,000
North Eastern	688,000	7,000	1.0	700,000	47,000	6.8	32,200,000	78,000	11.3	21,100,000
London North	735,000	2,000	0.3	200,000	21,000	2.9	11,500,000	44,000	6.0	14,700,000
South Western	310,000	1,000	0.3	100,000	7,000	2.3	4,300,000	20,000	6.5	5,800,000
Wales	257,000	3,000	1.2	300,000	13,000	5.1	6,800,000	26,000	10.1	7,000,000
Midlands	699,000	2,000	0.3	200,000	17,000	2.4	9,000,000	70,000	10.0	20,600,000
North Western	669,000	6,000	0.9	700,000	33,000	4.9	19,000,000	79,000	11.8	22,000,000
Scotland	487,000	13,000	2.7	1,400,000	43,000	8.8	25,200,000	84,000	17.2	22,600,000
London South	641,000	1,000	0.2	100,000	20,000	3.1	11,800,000	42,000	6.6	13,600,000
1992
Great Britain	5,088,000	243,000	4.8	28,500,000	243,000	4.8	145,400,000	586,000	11.5	175,600,000
North Eastern	753,000	50,000	6.6	5,800,000	57,000	7.6	39,400,000	103,000	13.7	28,300,000
London North	891,000	25,000	2.8	3,100,000	31,000	3.5	17,700,000	73,000	8.2	25,200,000
South Western	357,000	16,000	4.5	1,900,000	10,000	2.8	5,700,000	32,000	9.0	9,400,000
Wales	287,000	17,000	5.9	2,000,000	17,000	5.9	9,000,000	34,000	11.8	10,000,000
Midlands	800,000	36,000	4.5	4,100,000	23,000	2.9	11,800,000	90,000	11.3	27,700,000
North Western	731,000	44,000	6.0	5,100,000	39,000	5.3	21,400,000	100,000	13.7	27,900,000
Scotland	519,000	42,000	8.1	4,800,000	42,000	8.1	25,600,000	94,000	18.1	27,400,000
London South	749,000	14,000	1.9	1,700,000	24,000	3.2	14,700,000	59,000	7.9	19,700,000
1993
Great Britain	5,643,000	438,000	7.8	51,900,000	246,000	4.4	139,400,000	—	—	—
North Eastern	827,000	82,000	9.9	9,600,000	53,000	6.4	33,600,000	—	—	—

110W

system and the total cost for residential allowance cases was £67 million.

Currently around 280,000 people receive help through income support with residential care and nursing home fees at a cost of over £2 billion compared to 12,000 in 1979 at a cost of £10 million. Source: Income Support Statistics May 1993-February 1994 and November 1994.