Blunkett - Sell house to pay for your elderly care

[mumkin]

Take the example of two blokes who work next to each other doing the same job,earning the same money..one goes out every night and spends his cash and rents a council house, one saves a deposit and gets a mortgage..when/if the time comes for a nursing home why should the person who has been prudent end up no better off? Where's the fairness? Where is the incentive to not be a spendthrift?

 

Spot on. It stinks.

[barleycorn]

Read my post #9..I mean the people who had money but rented a council house and spent the rest on holidays and beer..they had the cash but chose to "waste" it..why should they get their care paid for but those that decided to buy a house not?

Those that spent 200k on booze and holidays will have paid a lot more in tax than those who spent 200k on a house. Why should those who choose to deprive the state of much needed tax revenue not be required to cash in their assets to pay for care?

 

jb

[Dark Night]

Those that spent 200k on booze and holidays will have paid a lot more in tax than those who spent 200k on a house. Why should those who choose to deprive the state of much needed tax revenue not be required to cash in their assets to pay for care?

 

jb

 

Hmmm self harmers ride again.

 

---------- Post added 07-02-2015 at 16:00 ----------

 

Spot on. It stinks.

 

Well said.

[mjw47]

Those that spent 200k on booze and holidays will have paid a lot more in tax than those who spent 200k on a house. Why should those who choose to deprive the state of much needed tax revenue not be required to cash in their assets to pay for care?

 

jb

 

Nice bit of nonsensical lateral thinking there.

 

By living a life based upon selfishly doing what they want, rather than trying to take into consideration what might be the best for their families, they are in your view helping the country?

 

Cost to the NHS of health problems caused by smoking £5 Billion.

 

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2F2%2Fhi%2Fhealth%2F8086142.stm&ei=4jXWVMjUKcnuaNLSgcAB&usg=AFQjCNE_AnTZ-BwYtrNqu0JO7zin9srz8w&bvm=bv.85464276,d.d2s

 

Cost to the NHS of health problems caused by alcohol £21 Billion.

 

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEkQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nta.nhs.uk%2Fuploads%2Fadult-alcohol-statistics-2013-14-commentary.pdf&ei=4zbWVPLgKI6zaevDgIgG&usg=AFQjCNEfZsTxZ-FRguzOmh5-56EoqExRVQ&bvm=bv.85464276,d.d2s

 

So based on that, perhaps anyone using the services of the NHS for treatment of ailments associated with use of alcohol or tobacco should be required to pay the full cost of treatment?

[Anna B]

What we need is for people to begin to understand that later-life care is not free. It can't be, it costs too much. What the result of that understanding, hopefully, will be is that people plan better for later-life care. It is completely beyond my comprehension that we do not see insurers jump on this en-masse, the Association of British Insurers is trying to push this but the notion that 'the State provideth' seemingly is holding this development back.

 

Care for the elderly has been free for 70+ years, when the country was not as well off as it is now.

There are a whole raft of people who entered old age with this understanding who are now caught up in a tangle of new rules - how could they have 'planned better for later life care?' The goalposts have moved suddenly with no time to 'plan.'

Also, the government has acknowledged that very few companies have taken up the opportunity to offer home care insurance.

 

I'd also like to know why a care home costs each person £2000+ a month, when the carer's allowance for full time (often 24/7) care is a measley £60 per week, when they have often had to give up a full time job to do it. And even that comes out of the cared for person's pocket.

[Dark Night]

Nice bit of nonsensical lateral thinking there.

 

By living a life based upon selfishly doing what they want, rather than trying to take into consideration what might be the best for their families, they are in your view helping the country?

 

Cost to the NHS of health problems caused by smoking £5 Billion.

 

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2F2%2Fhi%2Fhealth%2F8086142.stm&ei=4jXWVMjUKcnuaNLSgcAB&usg=AFQjCNE_AnTZ-BwYtrNqu0JO7zin9srz8w&bvm=bv.85464276,d.d2s

 

Cost to the NHS of health problems caused by alcohol £21 Billion.

 

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEkQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nta.nhs.uk%2Fuploads%2Fadult-alcohol-statistics-2013-14-commentary.pdf&ei=4zbWVPLgKI6zaevDgIgG&usg=AFQjCNEfZsTxZ-FRguzOmh5-56EoqExRVQ&bvm=bv.85464276,d.d2s

 

So based on that, perhaps anyone using the services of the NHS for treatment of ailments associated with use of alcohol or tobacco should be required to pay the full cost of treatment?

Exactly, well said

[Anna B]

According to financial section of today's Daily Mail, the average care home resident will pay £38,064 per year in care home fees plus £12,000 'hotel' costs.

 

Only those with assetts of £118,000 or less will get any financial support from their local authority.

 

The £72,000 cap is not what people think either:

'.....This means the average care home resident would pay £38,064 but only 15,664 a year would count towards the care cost cap, so in this example the £72,000 cap would be reached after four-and-a- half years, but by then a resident would have actually paid £184,010.'

 

?

 

...No, me neither....

[Mecky]

I wonder how many people claim the state pension and cold weather payments even though they don't need to?

[mjw47]

I wonder how many people claim the state pension and cold weather payments even though they don't need to?

 

I wonder how many able bodied people have chosen to avoid work at all costs and been happy to scrounge off the State all their adult lives?

 

If the people receiving state pensions and cold weather payments have worked, payed tax and contributed to the economy during their lives then they are entitled to receive those payments.

 

They are also the ones who will be charged for any care home they may need, unlike the scroungers, who will continue to live off the taxes paid by such people.

[apelike]

I wonder how many able bodied people have chosen to avoid work at all costs and been happy to scrounge off the State all their adult lives?

 

Not many!

 

A Rowntree quote from the Guardian:

 

"Under 1% of workless households might have two generations who have never worked – about 15,000 households in the UK. Families with three such generations will therefore be even fewer. That accounts for a minuscule fraction of unemployed workers."

 

It is also estimated that 0.8%, or £1.2bn, of total benefit expenditure was overpaid as a result of fraud during that time.

 

The benefits budget for 2011-2012 paid out around;

£90 billion to pensioners

£50 billion in family benefits, income support and tax credits

£35 billion in incapacity, disability and injury benefits

£25 billion in housing benefits

£5 billion in unemployment benefits

£4 billion in "other" and possibly includes the payments to DWP work providers such as A4E, Wise etc which increase the budget.

 

Because of recent benefit changes the numbers will have changed slightly.