two thirds won't save for care

CraigC

Registered User
Mar 21, 2003
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London
Got to agree.

They get the lot so why save!
Keep a pot for top ups but it seem crazy to save up specifically for care.

Should stop people saving for a rainy day though, no harm in that.
 

noelphobic

Registered User
Feb 24, 2006
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Liverpool
I did at one time consider taking out an insurance policy that would cover me in the event of ever needing residential care, but decided against it. Obviously the younger you are when you take out such a policy, the cheaper it will be. However, you need to balance that against the fact that you will (hopefully) be making payments for longer than an older person.

My parents always saved for a rainy day - the problem is that when it started pouring down they wouldn't admit it and carried on saving, rather than using that money to make their lives more comfortable and that of their carers less angst ridden! :(
 

CraigC

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Mar 21, 2003
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London
Hi Brenda,

Good point and this sounds similar to mum and dad.
They seemed to have missed the rainy days.

Interesting about the insurance policy. I wonder what benefits you get over funded care. Do they just pay top up fees so you can go in a home of your choice, or do they fully fund the care? Guess we'd all have to read the small print.
 

jenniferpa

Registered User
Jun 27, 2006
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I do wonder what the questions were. According to that

"Two thirds of people have no plans to put money aside to pay for the extra care they will need in old age, a survey suggests.
The same proportion said they would turn to family and friends for help rather than pay privately or ask a local council."

I would love to know 1) how these family and friends will respond and 2) why they think that paying privately or asking a local council are flip-sides of the same coin. I suspect that this is sloppy reporting though, and nothing more meaningful.
 

Margarita

Registered User
Feb 17, 2006
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london
My parents always saved for a rainy day the problem is that when it started pouring down they wouldn't admit it and carried on saving,


So did my parents , Only time my father got to use it was for his funeral:rolleyes:.

I told that to my mother sister , who had money in saving bonds, and would not even buy a washing machine to make life easier for herself, finally she stated to speand the money on herself so she could stop staggering, she keep back
enough money for her funeral. ( she died 2 years later )

So if I do any insurance policy, its going to be a funeral policy, because the only Surtain thing I know that is going to happen to me in this life is that I am going to Die .


I only save for a holiday, who knows what around the corner in life, Only death :D
( Just being realistic facing reality )
 

noelphobic

Registered User
Feb 24, 2006
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Liverpool
Interesting about the insurance policy. I wonder what benefits you get over funded care. Do they just pay top up fees so you can go in a home of your choice, or do they fully fund the care? Guess we'd all have to read the small print.

I think you can take out a policy that will cover all your payments should you need to go into residential care. However, I only briefly considered it so didn't look into it in any great detail. Obviously someone who was seriously considering taking out one of these policies would have to weigh up the pros and cons and look into the smallprint before going ahead.
 

noelphobic

Registered User
Feb 24, 2006
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Liverpool
I do wonder what the questions were. According to that

"Two thirds of people have no plans to put money aside to pay for the extra care they will need in old age, a survey suggests.
The same proportion said they would turn to family and friends for help rather than pay privately or ask a local council."

I would love to know 1) how these family and friends will respond and 2) why they think that paying privately or asking a local council are flip-sides of the same coin. I suspect that this is sloppy reporting though, and nothing more meaningful.

Yes, I noticed that and thought it was rather bizarre! I can't imagine any of my family and friends being willing to help me out to the tune of £30k a year somehow! It may well also be that if the people surveyed were just random members of the population, many of them would have no idea of the costs of living in a care home and the fact that many people are expected to find the money themselves. They probably assume naively that if you are sick the state will look after you from cradle to grave.

Before my mum went into a home I can't say I thought much about how the system worked and it would not even have entered my head to save up for such an eventuality.
 

Nell

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Aug 9, 2005
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Australia
My darling husband has a saying that is very appropos for this thread. When times are difficult (for any reason), he says:
"We have saved for a rainy day and now it is raining." Thank goodness for this sensible attitude.
 

towncrier

Registered User
Oct 14, 2007
41
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Lancashire
saving for care

Oh those heady postwar days when the Welfare State was founded and in addition to our income tax we paid into a social and medical fund called "National Insurance." The fund started in the red because of all the dammed up needs of a population for health care, teeth and glasses, but who could have begrudged the generation that had lived through two world wars and a recession? Now we still make National Insurance contributions but they are not separated from general taxation revenues available to the Exchequer, so are not ring-fenced for welfare. Any private insurers would have been arrested for fraud if they had behaved as successive governments have.
I would not advise anyone now to save for their own care because their savings will be confiscated, and people who have not been so provident will be just as entitled to care, however shoddy, as the saver.
It might be a good idea to put your savings into some other form than money, e.g. jewellery, art works, antiques. These will not earn interest for you and there is no guarantee that they will ever be worth as much as you paid for them, but at least, they are not liable (as yet) to State confiscation.
 

towncrier

Registered User
Oct 14, 2007
41
0
Lancashire
care charges

A bit of practical advice. There is a publication that gives information about shielding your cash and property from confiscation for care. I will supply details if you PM me.
 

jenniferpa

Registered User
Jun 27, 2006
39,442
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I would not advise anyone now to save for their own care because their savings will be confiscated, and people who have not been so provident will be just as entitled to care, however shoddy, as the saver.

Sorry, I know this is a fairly unpopular position but I really do disagree with this statement. From what I saw, and from some truly tragic posts on here, having savings potentially gives you options that you may not have otherwise. True that there are some homes (perhaps the majority) where social services funded patients and self-funded are both accepted and treated the same, but also there are different living options that might be suitable that will NOT be funded by social services. I think it really depends on your own attitude: you can look at people who haven't got saving apparently being treated the same way as someone who has got savings and think "it's not fair" OR you can be grateful that there is a safety net for people who don't have savings for whatever reason.
 

noelphobic

Registered User
Feb 24, 2006
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Liverpool
A bit of practical advice. There is a publication that gives information about shielding your cash and property from confiscation for care. I will supply details if you PM me.

I would advise everyone to be extremely cautious about anything like this, especially if they are dealing with other peoples money. I would also advise anyone against paying for something like this.
 

Margarita

Registered User
Feb 17, 2006
10,824
0
london
Quote:
Originally Posted by jenniferpa View Post
I do wonder what the questions were. According to that

"Two thirds of people have no plans to put money aside to pay for the extra care they will need in old age, a survey suggests.
The same proportion said they would turn to family and friends for help rather than pay privately or ask a local council."

I would love to know 1) how these family and friends will respond and 2) why they think that paying privately or asking a local council are flip-sides of the same coin. I suspect that this is sloppy reporting though, and nothing more meaningful.

noelphobic Yes, I noticed that and thought it was rather bizarre! I can't imagine any of my family and friends being willing to help me out to the tune of £30k a year somehow! It may well also be that if the people surveyed were just random members of the population, many of them would have no idea of the costs of living in a care home and the fact that many people are expected to find the money themselves. They probably assume naively that if you are sick the state will look after you from cradle to grave.

They probably assume naively that if you are sick the state will look after you from cradle to grave

you also have to take into consideration different cultures of community in England , who would not save for Care home fees , as they relied on they family tradition of looking after they elderly at home .


PS

Sate welfare was created 50 years ago , when Government was encouraging people from Caribbean , india , spain to emigrate to england to work in hospitals , manual work .

The majority rent homes in UK , some went to buy they property, theirs Mix cultures , came from a culture of tradition that cared for they elderly at home .

So did not think they needed to save for care home fees , now they children my generation age 49 , release the reality of the situation .

Its the Government fault , not the people , Government needs get the message out they , That the state can not afford this Nanny state they crated

So to move forward


The government need to tell its people
advertisements on TV , Radio .

Your house will be sold to pay the fees , if you get dementia go in to care home and you do not any other saving to pay for it .
 
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Natashalou

Registered User
Mar 22, 2007
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london
Far from saving I fully intend to do all I can to make sure I have as few assetts as possible to be used to pay for care!!