Message to Gordon from the wrinklies

seven-day-weekend

Most people would still have to sell their house for care fees even if it was £75k.

I think there are many people who have no assets or savings other than their house. Most houses are worth more than £75k.

I don't think the house should be counted at all, only savings/investments, and keep it at £16000, in line with the amount allowed for means-tested benefits .

EdInvestor

dwileflunker wrote: »

I totally agree but I think you are whistling in the wind if you think this government (especially this government) or any other is going to come anywhere near what you quote, which in reality is probably quite a sensible and realistic figure. .

Well they are talking about"sharing the cost" and also about insurance playing a role.

If you take a person of modest means with a pension of say 10k p.a and a house worth 150k, at the moment they will probably have to pay over both the pension (above around 20 quid a week) and the house proceeds in order to fund average care home fees of 25k.pa.

This is because they would need a care annuity of 15k a year to top up their pension, which would likely cost more than 100k, maybe up to 150k if they were youngish (70 say).

A better off person with pensions of 20k a year and a house worth say 500k will not find funding care a problem at all: they will only need a 5k care annuity topup, which will cost maybe around 50k.Such a person is likely to have that amount of money in savings - so their house wouldn't be touched and nor would the council pay anything.

What I'd suggest if that people should be required to contribute 75k for a care annuity, plus their pension income ( as now) for care costs. Any assets above this level they get to keep.

This is a win win for both people in care and the taxpayer: there is a chunk of investable cash available to improve their life and provide an inhetritance, while the majority of the fees will be paid by the person's pension plus the care annuity, and the council will only have to top up.

moanymoany

My step-father has enough benefit income to save £8,000 in 2 years. He has care allowance, pension credit, housing benefit etc. etc.

He saved nothing while working, has a small works pension, stopped working at about 50 and was on invalidity benefit (could have got a different type of job but it was soooo haaarddd) and it seems all wrong when people who have saved are unable to do this.

margaretclare

moanymoany wrote: »

My step-father has enough benefit income to save £8,000 in 2 years. He has care allowance, pension credit, housing benefit etc. etc.

He saved nothing while working, has a small works pension, stopped working at about 50 and was on invalidity benefit (could have got a different type of job but it was soooo haaarddd) and it seems all wrong when people who have saved are unable to do this.

We don't get any of those means-tested benefits, but we do get enough pensions income between us to save quite a bit. I'm saving because we don't know what our needs may be in time to come, and DH is saving for holidays.

nicko33

margaretclare wrote: »

That and the free TV licence etc are based on stereotypical images of what older people are like and what they do.

Talking of TV licences, it should all be paid for from general taxation.
Running the TV Licensing Authority, sending out little bits of paper, checking up on who has and hasn't paid, is all a waste of time and money.

[Deleted User]

I would like the link between inflation and pensions to be more realistic.The pension increase is nowhere near the inflation costs of the past 6 months, and when there is a pension rise in the budget we have to wait almost a year before we get it.By that time inflation has eaten away any benefit whatsoever. My DD's ma and pa-in-law are £2.00 per week over the limit to get pension credit yet have a Council tax bill of £134.68 per month.Their combined pensions only come to £190.per weeek so almost three quarters of one weeks pension per month goes in council tax.What really annoys them is being charged extra for the 2012 Olympics that neither of them would ever be able to afford to go to as they live in a London Borough.By 2012 as one is 79 and the other 76 the chances are they wont be around possibly in 4 years time anyway.
I am lucky in that I can afford to live on what I get, but there are thousands of pensioners who cannot.Its no good saying they should have saved, as a lot of them didn't earn the sort of money to put much by anyway.
I am lucky that I don't have to choose in the winter whether to heat or eat
'Prudence' should be careful as the 'Grey Vote 'is a very powerful one and we only take so much before we bite back

Groundhog_2

Im getting pretty sick of this country now it seems that all the goverment and local council want is for me to hurry up and die. I dont seem to be able to get help anywhere and the people at the council tar everyone with the same brush. I was born English unfortunately so any country that I could move to that my measly £600 a month pension would let me live comfortably in probably hates the Brits. I have been fighting severe depression for a few years now and every time I see a glimmer of hope it gets dashed three fold by something else like food price increases petrol prices etc and the people we voted in to suposedly represent us do nothing because they are quite happy on their 50+k a year and all the freebies that go with being an MP if they where to have to help someone like me they may have to give some of it up and thats a no no. The local council seem hell bent on providing new sculptures and such for the visiters to gawp at that doesnt help me or others that get their houses or cars broken into because there arent enough police on at night

Farway

Hi Groundhog, you do seem to be up against it and very annoyed, no doubt understandably

Unfortunately I can offer no great comfort, as I, and probably others, have found out during our lives that no government, of any party, seems to look out for what I would term "ordinary people", despite all the promises they soon get forgotten once elected

Then they complain about "voter apathy"

I well remember my horror when Tories [Geoffrey Howe IIRC] doubled VAT from 7.5 to 15%, and added it to gas / elect which were nil band, then removed earnings link form pension. Now the very same party expects us to believe they really care about energy costs etc, yeah right

In case anyone thinks I am one sided, I also remember when my job was sent North [ Gerald bloody Kaufman IIRC]when shipyards were renationalised, great for Sunderland Labour voters, tough on Hampshire workers though

A pox on the lot of them