I wonder how long it will be before there are equity release plans specifically for the cost of care?
Why would you need a specific one?
They will want to ensure that all of the equity in your house above Ā£100k that is potentially needed for your care costs is ring fenced, just in case.
But if thereās no need to sell the asset before death, I donāt see how this would be needed. Iām probably just missing something though.
You donāt sell it - someone else has a stake in the equity in your house when it is sold. The care bills have to be paid as you use then, not on your death. This policy will only impact the 95-99% of the population who do not have sufficient other assets to cover your care costs and those with less than Ā£100k in total assets.
I have to say, Iām broadly in favour of the principle of getting people to pay if they can afford it. There are lots of issues in the details though.
I guess this boils down to whether or not we see a difference between the need for health care (e.g. if/when you get cancer) or whatever weāre going to call the other type of care (e.g. if/when you get dementia, or crippling arthritis, or whatever). Itās broadly accepted that cancer care should be provided āfree at the point of useā by the NHS. But we seem to be ambivalent about whether dementia care should. I confess the distinction is not clear to me (my mother died of cancer, Mrs VBās mother died of dementia, so Iāve seen them both and they have a lot in common).
VB
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Yes but this comes down to luck.
You still get the care whether you can afford it or not. As VB said, The argument comes down to whether the burden for this should be individualised, or āpooledā and democratised as the rest of the NHS is.
I havenāt fully resolved the answer to this, myself. There is no doubt the NHSās founders couldnāt have not seen coming, the type of long-term social care thatās needed today and in the future.
And in terms of āfairnessā an argument can be made (not necessailry the right one), that itās too big of a burden for todayās working generation to pick up when there is a ready source of equity from baby boomers directly available to fund their care. Again, as VB asks, is ālong-term social careā a sufficiently special case to fund it in this way?
I do think Labour are being a little hypocritical here, because thereās no doubt theyād like to tax the fuck of inheritance.
Changing the subject for a moment, can anyone explain to me why swapping lunches for breakfasts will save a load of money, especially as schools will have to open earlier and pay additional hours for staff to be on-hand?
This is basically the privatisation of elderly care. I hope this backfires on the Tories as itās even more badly thought out than the Bedroom Tax and Universal Credit were.
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Whatevever you want to call it, you pay for it in one way or another. And if the policy had come from Labour it would be spun as āinheritance tax increases to fund the NHS.ā
Itās just words.
cold Vs hotā¦ meat & 2 veg plus dessert Vs cereal, bread and milk
Thatās not going to make the projected savings, surely? Have they specifically said it will be a cold breakfast?
That is true but the Inheritance Tax threshold is Ā£325k not Ā£100k, so pretty much every home owner will be impacted. Once the Tories get this though, expect to see more like paying to see your GP.
If large corporations paid anywhere near the Corporation Tax they should without all of the clever accounting practices, we would be less in the shit than we are.
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Yeah, we wonāt though. Itās been FUD peddled for years but never happened, never will.
And if me auntie had bollocks, etc. I look forward to JC swimming in tax revenues, and then him waking up.
Itās already happening. GPs are contracted to the NHS but can also offer private services as well. In some Practices, they donāt do NHS work.
So? There has always been private provision made alongside the NHS.
This was a nightmare when it came to my mums care. she suffered from dementia and the NHS and Local Council batted the responsibility of costs around for bloody ages. Luckily for us the bill was picked up by the NHS as it was determined that nursing care was predominant.
In terms of setting up a Trust, we were fortunate on two counts:
1.That we did so before the great money grab was put in place where a Trust would be ignored if they thought it had been set up to avoid the liability for Care Home costs (both for my mum as a demtia sufferer and my dad as he became unable to care for himself).
- My dad had set the Trust up because he was concerned he would die before my mum and that her dementia would be a ācomplicationā that would be taken advantage of by the āStateā as it sought to recover costs for her care. (he was not aware of point one at this time).
the liability for my dadās care Home costs was subsequently limited to his savings only. I suspect this will no longer be allowed to happen for couples, one of whom has early signs of dementia,
I am utterly convinced that guidance will be issued regarding Trusts and early equity release schemes. I can see them deciding that if you took equity early, leaving less than Ā£100k in the house in order to avoid costs, you would forfeit that Ā£100k. It is the obvious loophole they will need to plug.
no they havenāt - but the reading I was doing suggested the average charge for a breakfast club breakfast is about Ā£1.60ish http://www.kelloggs.co.uk/content/dam/newton/images/masterbrand/UK/R5_Kelloggs%20Breakfast%20Club%20Audit%20APSE.pdf
compared to the approx. average charge of a lunch of about Ā£2.25 per day.
if that is what schools are chargingā¦ then I assume the costs are similarly proportioned? so some savings to be made?.
or of course they could be making it up