Frail grandfather threatened with eviction from care home

A frail grandfather who sold his home to pay for a nursing home place fears he could be made homeless in weeks after being threatened with eviction now his money has run out.

Retired farmer Edwin Coglan, 78, from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, handed over £40,000 from the house sale to pay for round-the-clock care.

But now the money has gone, North Somerset Council have ruled the pensioner - who has suffered three heart attacks - is not frail enough to qualify for free nursing care and is refusing to pay his £500-a-month fees.

Mr Coglan has been warned he will be registered homeless if he refuses to move into a third-floor flat, offered as an alternative by the council.

But the housing association which runs the flat he has been allocated said they will not accept the pensioner because they feel the accommodation is unsuitable for a man in such poor health.

Mr Coglan's son Andrew, 42, a self-employed businessman, said his father cannot look after himself because of his failing health and mild dementia.

He criticised the council's refusal to pay for his care and said the case was a damning indictment of how the elderly were treated by an uncaring society.

"It's absolutely disgusting. I feel like the whole of society has let my father down and pensioners seem to be the forgotten people. It's very, very sad. I just hope no-one else goes through this.

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"My dad was forced to sell his home and used the £40,000 to pay for his nursing home place. Now the cash has run out, the nursing home want to evict him and social services have warned us he could be made homeless.

"They offered him a flat on the third floor but he can hardly walk, and he's breathless because of his three heart attacks. Now the housing association say he's not suitable for the flat, despite the council claiming he is.

"It's a crazy situation.

"He loves the home, but the stress of this could kill him. It's been terribly upsetting for him. He says it's put ten years on his life.

"All he wanted was a peaceful retirement and now he faces being evicted."

Mr Coglan senior and his infirm wife Audrey sold their home in the seaside town and moved into sheltered accommodation in 2000 as her health deteriorated.

A year later, Mrs Coglan suffered a major stroke and was left paralysed down her left side.

Her husband struggled to care for her after she suffered two more strokes in 2003 and 2005.

The following year, Mr Coglan had his first heart attack a day after his wife again succumbed to a stroke and the pair ended up in hospital.

A social service worker visited them to assess their needs and asked about their financial situation, Mr Coglan claims.

They were means tested and told they needed to sell their £40,000 flat to pay for the care they needed.

The couple paid all of the proceeds to Summer Lane Care, in Weston, which charged £1,000 a month.

Last December Mrs Coglan died, and two months later the money ran out. Now her husband faces eviction.

Their son insists he would look after him, but spends all his time caring for his terminally ill wife, Helen, and their three children.

The local authority has found a flat for the pensioner, which is overseen by a warden.

But it has no furniture and Mr Coglan has no cash to buy anything for it. It has no lifts and the pensioner struggles to walk upstairs.

"He's been given four weeks to get out of the care home, and we don't know what will happen," Mr Coglan said.

"I just want to do all I can for my dad. I've lost my mum, my wife has only got a few weeks left. I want to keep dad with me as long as possible."

A spokeswoman for Nightingale Premier Healthcare, which owns Summer Lane, said the firm was losing money over the stand-off and said it was dispute between the council and family.

A spokesman for North Somerset Council said: "Whilst we are sympathetic to Mr Coglan's situation, his assessment of needs shows that he does not meet the council's criteria for residential or nursing home care.

"Mr Coglan is being supported by the council to find alternative accommodation."

The council refused to comment on the threat of making him homeless if he did not accept their choice of accommodation.

Last week the Daily Mail highlighted the plight of 103-year-old Esme Collins who was evicted from her care home when they raised her fees and she could not afford the price hike.

Mrs Collins, who requires round-the-clock nursing care, endured the upheaval of going into the outside world for the first time in four years and was transferred to a care home ten miles away.

The great-great-grandmother had been paying £162 of her fees of around £400 a week from her own pension funds with the balance coming from public funds. Then Abbeymoor's owner demanded up to £150 more a week from the council.

The Daily Mail highlighted her ordeal as part of our Dignity for the Elderly campaign. Care homes are closing at a rate of one a week.