Old Age Care

rajeshk4u

People often talk about pension provisions, but what happens when people are too old to look after themselves? It is something, I rather not think too much.



Should I be saving for this? Is there a fund to cover this? Not everyone will need such cover.....



Just wondering, what arrangements people have made?

Loanranger

Spend less, save more.

Marcon

You can buy insurance policies covering residential care if needed - but not cheap, obviously.

OldMusicGuy

Yes you should be saving for this. It should be part of your long term financial planning.

We will be using equity in our house by downsizing at key times as we get older. Also making sure we have enough in pension/savings as a backup when we are in our 90s.

fred246

Make sure that when the time comes you have less than £23.5k in savings.

AnotherJoe

One way trip to Switzerland covers me

drumtochty

Booked the flight yet Joe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

atush

Make sure you won your own home free and clear. that and some savings should see you thru.

AnotherJoe

drumtochty wrote: »

Booked the flight yet Joe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well there is that, by the time I need to I might accidentally book Swaziland instead.

Keep_pedalling

fred246 wrote: »

Make sure that when the time comes you have less than £23.5k in savings.

Great plan if you want to end up in an over my dead body sort of home, if you actually manage to survive long enough for the funding to come through.

Should the need arise we have ring fenced savings to cover this possibility, but with a bit of luck that will end up with our children instead.

hugheskevi

It is important to appreciate the probability of requiring care and the different types.

As you age and start become less active and able, having funds to be able to pay for tasks you would have previously done yourself will go a long way toward improving quality of life. Things such as gardening, housework, window cleaning and such-like. You would expect most households to either need or at least benefit from being able to fund this.

Common wisdom has generally been that as couples age and become less active, funds that were previously used for entertainment, travel, etc, can be redirected to greater support at home. Statistics show that unlike the widely assumed U-shaped retirement (lots of money needed at start of retirement whilst active, less as become less active but still independent and then lots at end of retirement on care), most elderly people do not experience a significant increase in expenditure toward the end of their life.

Couples typically look after each other, and will often manage perhaps with some care-in-community type support or even privately funded care at home and so usually avoid the need for residential or nursing home care. As males tend to pre-decease their spouse (on average) it is much more common for females to require residential care than males, after their partner has died.

Whilst it would be prudent to cater for funding a degree of in-home support, it is likely to be impractical and inefficient to fund for 2 sets of residential or nursing home care, especially as it is very unlikely both individuals would need this. Planning to fund this either from funds which would otherwise be passed on in inheritance or from property no longer needed would usually be part of the plan (either an explicit plan, or just being what happens without any plan).