Elder care for middle-classes to be abolished!

amcluesent

"Taxpayers would have to pay hundreds of pounds in premiums every year while working, and would receive payouts if they later have to move into a nursing home.

Under the current system, anyone moving into a nursing home or requiring home help has their finances assessed by their local council before their needs. Those who have more than £22,500 in assets receive no state help at all."

Any other tax-payers wondering exactly what they pay their (ever increasing) NI for?

Obviously NuLabour's attempts to control public-spending will fall squarely on the middle-classes and leave untouched their 'block voters' on benefits.

FACT - you're a fool if you work & save in Britain, much better to do nothing and have nothing and leech off the state.

hamstercheeks_2

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=17232803#post17232803

yup i do question NI

beingjdc

amcluesent wrote: »

Those who have more than £22,500 in assets receive no state help at all."

Misleading. They still receive "state help" - their pension, any relevant non-means tested disability-related allowances, and free healthcare.

They don't get any state subsidy towards their nursing home care, is what it ought to say up there.

The proposal is to change that, so make your mind up which you want - it has to be one or the other, you can't be against both!

chewmylegoff

if you want free residential care for all elderly people, regardless of their income and assets, then the reality is that you are going to have to be prepared to pay a lot more tax than you currently do.

in the same way that you don't get housing benefit when you can afford your own accomodation, you shouldn't get free residential care when you can afford to pay for it.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

Anyone else just want to take as much as possible out of their pensions and blow the lot.I can tell you we're beginning to feel that way.
My husband retires in 8 years,we won't be eligible for anything as we have saved and he has a final salary pension that he has been paying into for nearly forty years.Our house will also be paid for too.He's always worked,we have never had anything but family allowance for two of our three daughters(you did'nt get it for the first then)he hasn't even had sickness benefit as in all those years he's had about 14 days sickness.All of my girls work and pay for their own families.
In contrast my brother-in-law,just a few years younger has never worked.He is an alcoholic(he's always refused treatment for this) and has lived on the social since he was 19.He has three children who he has never earned a penny for and he and his wife want for nothing.When he's classed as retired he and my sister-in-law will be catered for and won't be expected to pay for anything.His eldest son is following in his fathers footsteps and living on the dole with his wife and children.
It makes you wonder why you bother getting up in the morning to do the decent thing,does'nt it.

Broken_hearted

Funny I thought we already paid.

treliac

MRSTITTLEMOUSE wrote: »

Anyone else just want to take as much as possible out of their pensions and blow the lot.I can tell you we're beginning to feel that way.
we won't be eligible for anything as we have saved and he has a final salary pension that he has been paying into for nearly forty years.

MrsTittlemouse - you, me and, I suspect, a great many others likely to be in exactly the same position.

This and future governments had better get their act together and start incentivising folk to work and prepare for their own future - and fast.

beingjdc

MRSTITTLEMOUSE wrote: »

Anyone else just want to take as much as possible out of their pensions and blow the lot.

Not really. Having watched my mother look for a suitable home for my mildly crackers, mostly blind, slightly deaf great-uncle, I know how much of a difference being able to choose with your own money, and pay a bit more for quality, makes, compared to being shoved in whatever's cheap and available on the social.

gussie

beingjdc wrote: »

... pay a bit more for quality ...

A £1000 a week may not last that long anyway - and then you'll be shoved wherever!

treliac

beingjdc wrote: »

Not really. Having watched my mother look for a suitable home for my mildly crackers, mostly blind, slightly deaf great-uncle, I know how much of a difference being able to choose with your own money, and pay a bit more for quality, makes, compared to being shoved in whatever's cheap and available on the social.

It's more complex than that though.

Having had three grandparents who needed care homes, two were self-funding and one state-funded. Although the private homes looked better on the surface, I can assure you that the warmth and depth of love and care my nan received in the former council home was definitely better and more personal to her needs.

It's worth remembering that not for profit organisations are exactly that and have a different baseline. Also that state-funded residents are placed in a variety of establishments and often live side by side with privately-funded residents.

beingjdc

treliac wrote: »

It's more complex than that though.

Having had three grandparents who needed care homes, two were self-funding and one state-funded. Although the private homes looked better on the surface, I can assure you that the warmth and depth of love and care my nan received in the former council home was definitely better and more personal to her needs.

It's worth remembering that not for profit organisations are exactly that and have a different baseline. Also that state-funded residents are placed in a variety of establishments and often live side by side with privately-funded residents.

Oh I know, there are lots of council-run or wholly-funded places that do an amazing job with what they have, and lots of council-funded individuals who get into good homes.

Nonetheless, when the first home he went into failed to put his hearing aid in, move him about, or take him to the toilet regularly enough, or change his bedding when the inevitable resulted from that, he didn't have to apply to the council to say it wasn't adequate and get moved on, he could just stop paying and start paying for somewhere else.