Provision for the cost of a care home or support when continuing to live in your own home

lisyloo

Ibrahim5 said:

Do you spend your 60s and 70s sat at home watching TV in the cold saving your money for your care home or do you enjoy yourself and accept that you might not end up in the world's smartest care home?

Thats the basis of conundrum every potential retire faces.
personally I intend a pension for the lifestyle I want, plus savings for the unforeseen/extras then house as a fallback but it is difficult not knowing how your longevity and your health will pan out.

lisyloo

Mojisola said:

cfw1994 said:

Care homes ranged from £900 to £1400pw, so enabling her  remain in her own home made sense financially as well as emotionally.

We were investigating live-in care, which looked to be around the upper end of care home costs, but few companies do it.

My FIL wanted to stay at home so the family arranged for live-in care - they looked at a couple of firms and the prices were much the same - as you say, the cost was upper end care home plus there were still all the bills to be paid to keep the house running but it worked very well and he was happy.

The actual experience didn't exactly match the promised regular 3-weeks with one carer and then 3-weeks with another in rotation but the logistics of managing the carers/clients must be a nightmare so the family were willing to be flexible.

There was only one carer who didn't suit and she stayed just for one week, by mutual consent.

He ended up with a pool of regular carers who were all lovely - expensive but worth it if the money is available.

I'd just add that FIL was very happy with his own company - my own Dad thrived in a care home environment because he loved having company all the time so that's another factor to take into account.

Getting carers in can work earlier on.
for someone who can’t be safely left 24/7 then It becomes much more difficult
when my Mil went into nursing care she was initially “assistance of 1” and then deteriorated to “assistance of 2”.
alternatives to residential/nursing become very difficult if you need 24/7 and possibly more than one career at a time.
but it’s great there are more options now.

my dad is on his own and a bit unstable so I’m getting him a wrist alarm that he can activate and it monitors “hard falls”. The technology can help people in earlier stages and keep people independent for longer which is in everyone’s interests.

lisyloo

Linton said:

Ibrahim5 said:

Do you spend your 60s and 70s sat at home watching TV in the cold saving your money for your care home or do you enjoy yourself and accept that you might not end up in the world's smartest care home?

The danger at the other extreme is spending all your money when relatively young on things you will soon forget and then living your final years in what you regard as poverty and squalor regretting your earlier extravagence.

Yes, but depends on your strategy.
for example if I use home for care, then I’m unlikely to spend that when relatively young (it’s not a liquid asset), so for all intents and purposes its ringfenced.

the general dilemma remains and one can only make sensible trade-offs

if I have great health and have to do equity release later in life then I’d be very happy with that outcome (ideally spend every penny).

long term care is just another line item in the general dilemma albeit quite a variable one.

cfw1994

lisyloo said:

Mojisola said:

cfw1994 said:

Care homes ranged from £900 to £1400pw, so enabling her  remain in her own home made sense financially as well as emotionally.

We were investigating live-in care, which looked to be around the upper end of care home costs, but few companies do it.

My FIL wanted to stay at home so the family arranged for live-in care - they looked at a couple of firms and the prices were much the same - as you say, the cost was upper end care home plus there were still all the bills to be paid to keep the house running but it worked very well and he was happy.

The actual experience didn't exactly match the promised regular 3-weeks with one carer and then 3-weeks with another in rotation but the logistics of managing the carers/clients must be a nightmare so the family were willing to be flexible.

There was only one carer who didn't suit and she stayed just for one week, by mutual consent.

He ended up with a pool of regular carers who were all lovely - expensive but worth it if the money is available.

I'd just add that FIL was very happy with his own company - my own Dad thrived in a care home environment because he loved having company all the time so that's another factor to take into account.

Getting carers in can work earlier on.
for someone who can’t be safely left 24/7 then It becomes much more difficult
when my Mil went into nursing care she was initially “assistance of 1” and then deteriorated to “assistance of 2”.
alternatives to residential/nursing become very difficult if you need 24/7 and possibly more than one career at a time.
but it’s great there are more options now.

my dad is on his own and a bit unstable so I’m getting him a wrist alarm that he can activate and it monitors “hard falls”. The technology can help people in earlier stages and keep people independent for longer which is in everyone’s interests.

Technology can definitely help!
As well as a “lifeline” (which got a fair bit of usage towards the end), over time, we deployed:

• Blink cameras: front and back doors for security, plus one in the hall which could tell us whether the stair lift was up or down….also helped when we saw her fall in the hallway - a 40 minute dash whilst talking to her on the camera to reassure her found her crumpled by the front door but broadly okay 😳
• Amazon Alexa to enable regular ‘drop in’ chats when we weren’t visiting in person.  Also allowed direct conversation with carers if we had noticed things (eg, sleeping downstairs in the chair all night, which might explain tiredness);
• A telephone you can put photos on a button to call 3 people.  That was a little too late really for her, but certainly the technology worked fine.

These tools certainly enabled the MiL to remain in her home far longer and safer than would have been possible without.

bobthebleeper

My mum has been eating  through her savings to pay for a live-in carer but those savings are approaching (decreasingtowards)  the £23k means-tested threshold and we will apply to the council for funding. As the care costs >£1200 per week the amount that the council will pay will fall far short of that and so she would have to top this up via equity release on her home. Our financial advisor has recommended a drawdown type which is basically a guaranteed loan facility where you withdraw money as you need it rather than all in one lump.

So far we've been unable to find the answer to the following important question, which is whether the money she gets from the scheme affects the means-tested benefits. This would be unfair (or at least we think so) but that doesn't mean it wouldn't happen. Unfortunately the council tell us to ask our financial advisor who says that it depends on the council...I *think* we could withdraw in sufficiently small chunks to keep the amount of money she has at any one time below the means threshold,

Does anyone have experience of doing this?