There are several different scenarios /categories of people that we need to consider.
1. The extremely wealthy, those that if the need arises could spend several hundred thousand a year on care and not notice it.
2. Those that have absolutely no savings or any means paying for care, either at home or in a Care Home. If the need arises the council pay, maybe not very willingly and after lots of delay, and the quality of care that they get might not be the best. It doesn’t cost them anything and currently this cost is about 20% of local council spending (according to Google!!)
3. That leaves what I suspect is the vast majority that have some savings and perhaps some capital tied up in a property.
a. If they do not need care either at home or in a Care Home what they leave will go to their heirs (less IHT).
b. If they do need care in some form they will have to fund it and dependent on how long they live they might have nothing left for their heirs or a greatly diminished sum.
It seems to me that those in the middle have a choice/dilemma; do they/we pay a so called “death tax”, extra income tax or similar and know that what we have and leave (after IHT) will go to our heirs irrespective if we need care or not (assuming that the funds generated are hypothecated). Or if we do not reform Care for the Elderly and how we fund it, it will remain the current lottery dependent on whether you need care or not.
Personally, I favour reform.
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