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care costs

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Just listenting to this episode of you and yours. This poor couple have had to fork out £4k a month to pay for the husbands care. She has spent over £200k of their life savings to look after her husband with dementia. 

Yet if they had been a couple who either never worked, or spent every penny on luxury holidays or gave it to their children as soon as they earned it, and therefor had zero savings, their care would be paid for by the state. How is this fair? Why is Martin Lewis not fighting this?! Why is he wasting time making sure people who are on £60k a year salary get child benefit!


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  • jackieblack
    jackieblack Posts: 10,497 Forumite
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    His care may have been paid for by the state, eventually, after a protracted and stressful process, but they would have had little/no choice about the care home he ended up in, or the quality of care provided.

    Self funding gives choices, in terms of timing, quality, facilities and location.
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  • Sea_Shell
    Sea_Shell Posts: 10,022 Forumite
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    It's always more of a issue to self fund for the first one to need care, as the house can't be as easily sold.   So even if the house is disregarded, you still need to spend your savings, but at least you have choices.
    How's it going, AKA, Nutwatch? - 12 month spends to date = 2.60% of current retirement "pot" (as at end May 2025)
  • elsien
    elsien Posts: 35,986 Forumite
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    edited 28 January 2024 at 1:36PM
    This country has a social care crisis. And an unworkable disconnect between health and social care.
    Each successive government has come up with a plan,  realised it’s either too difficult or too politically unpopular and kicked it down the line.  Including the recent cap on care cost proposal which this government has bottled out on and extended any action beyond the life of the current parliament.
    This is not a Martin Lewis issue. This is a political issue that no one is willing to tackle.
    Because supposedly free care comes back on everyone else in the form of taxes. I don’t know what sort of care the lady was  paying for at 4K a month, but it’s going to be a hell of a sight more than any local authority would ever pay. 

    So to the OP, what would you be willing to pay to subsidise free care for everyone?
    All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.

    Pedant alert - it's could have, not could of.
  • QrizB
    QrizB Posts: 18,187 Forumite
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    edited 28 January 2024 at 1:58PM
    elsien said:
    So to the OP, what would you be willing to pay to subsidise free care for everyone?
    Per this ONS bulletin, total long-term care expenditure in 2021 was £60Bn, with only £14Bn of that being "out of pocket" funding - the sort of ad-hoc privte funding mentioned by the OP.
    A 1% cut on basic rate tax has been calculated to cost about £5Bn, so to raise £14Bn a year you'd need to add ~3% to it instead. Or reinstate the Health and Social Care Levy of 1.25% on all NI - which, being paid by those of working age rather than retirees, would increase weath transfer from "hard working families" to pensioners.
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  • Somebody
    Somebody Posts: 204 Forumite
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    Wasn't it one of BoJo's pledges that he would fix social care costs once and for all?  Did he not pledge that no one would pay more than £85k over their lifetime for care?  Just another Tory soundbite then?
  • Albermarle
    Albermarle Posts: 27,831 Forumite
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    Somebody said:
    Wasn't it one of BoJo's pledges that he would fix social care costs once and for all?  Did he not pledge that no one would pay more than £85k over their lifetime for care?  Just another Tory soundbite then?
    Like all these issues, it was not as simple to implement as it sounded and had some potentially negative consequences, one if which being an even greater squeeze on cash strapped councils.

  • QrizB
    QrizB Posts: 18,187 Forumite
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    Somebody said:
    Wasn't it one of BoJo's pledges that he would fix social care costs once and for all?  Did he not pledge that no one would pay more than £85k over their lifetime for care?  Just another Tory soundbite then?
    That was the rationale for the Health and Social Care Levy, mentioned above and postponed by Jeremy Hunt. Tax the workers to pay for retirees' care.
    Without the levy, there's no money to cap costs.
    And, of course, a blunt cap like that mostly helps the better-off.

    N. Hampshire, he/him. Octopus Intelligent Go elec & Tracker gas / Vodafone BB / iD mobile. Ripple Kirk Hill member.
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  • QrizB
    QrizB Posts: 18,187 Forumite
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    There's quite a timely article on this in the Guardian today:
    It links back to a financial forecast that Barnet council put together in 2012 and became known as the "Graph of Doom":
    At the time, every one applauded and assumed that central government would do something to increase local government funding - by either allowing higher Council Tax or by increasing the grants from general taxation. Strangely, neither has occurred.

    N. Hampshire, he/him. Octopus Intelligent Go elec & Tracker gas / Vodafone BB / iD mobile. Ripple Kirk Hill member.
    2.72kWp PV facing SSW installed Jan 2012. 11 x 247w panels, 3.6kw inverter. 34 MWh generated, long-term average 2.6 Os.
    Not exactly back from my break, but dipping in and out of the forum.
    Ofgem cap table, Ofgem cap explainer. Economy 7 cap explainer. Gas vs E7 vs peak elec heating costs, Best kettle!
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