Care homes - why do people still not know this?

[I1L2T3]

I cannot afford to pay more tax. To fund it all to (lowish) standard would result in my income tax going up, VAT at 25-35% etc etc. The costs are huge and, as tim pointed out we're starting from a standing start.

 

Tax might not go up. might just be 1p on NICs for example.

 

Don't pooh pooh it before you know it's really not possible.

 

---------- Post added 10-05-2017 at 13:26 ----------

 

Who's going to vote for a tax rise?

 

The Tories are refusing to rule them out, and are current riding at 45% in the polls

[sgtkate]

Who's going to vote for a tax rise?

 

I would hope most people support it if the money was properly accounted for and explained that if you paid an extra 1% tax which for someone on NMW would equate to roughly 8p an hour or (£5 a week £250 a year based on full time) but that money would be ringfenced for care personal care when you got older and would cover the costs of a decent care regime and pension then I pray to all Gods that most people would be ok with that...but it needs to be ringfenced in law so people have absolute faith it will be there when they need it.

[Cyclone]

It's very rare for a party to campaign and say that they will definitely raise taxes.

[truman]

I would hope most people support it if the money was properly accounted for and explained that if you paid an extra 1% tax which for someone on NMW would equate to roughly 8p an hour or (£5 a week £250 a year based on full time) but that money would be ringfenced for care personal care when you got older and would cover the costs of a decent care regime and pension then I pray to all Gods that most people would be ok with that...but it needs to be ringfenced in law so people have absolute faith it will be there when they need it.

 

With all the will in the world,even if it's ring fenced,will £5 extra a week make much difference?

[Anna B]

It's very rare for a party to campaign and say that they will definitely raise taxes.

 

It's part of the problem. Candidates have to watch every word they say and can't be honest for fear of losing the vote. Every word is poured over by party officials and analysed for movement in the polls

[Olive]

With all the will in the world,even if it's ring fenced,will £5 extra a week make much difference?

 

Quite possibly.

 

Despite what we hear about living longer with long term conditions, it's still not actually the norm to need full time residential care - it only happens to the minority of older folk. The thing is, when you do need it, it's MASSIVELY expensive for an individual to fund. Even relatively well off folk will soon run out of savings at £30k a year. Same as needing expensive medical care like open heart surgery - only a very few of us ever need it, which is why it makes sense to spread the risk with NI and an NHS. I'd like to see this extended to care as well as health.

 

At the moment, people who have assets get them cashed in for care, people without receive state aid. How is that fair? The government's big idea is to allow local authorities to lift the council tax cap to cover care costs, but this places a massive burden on areas where there are a lot of old folk, or a lot of poor folk who can't pay for their own care. The pool needs to be bigger than that.

[sgtkate]

With all the will in the world,even if it's ring fenced,will £5 extra a week make much difference?

 

Over someone's working lifetime with compound interest? God yes.

[truman]

Over someone's working lifetime with compound interest? God yes.

 

£20 a month over 50 years at 3% would give about 27k... a year's care home fees? About 15k more than you'd paid in...not exactly earth shattering..unless my maths is wrong of course

[sgtkate]

£20 a month over 50 years at 3% would give about 27k... a year's care home fees? About 15k more than you'd paid in...not exactly earth shattering..unless my maths is wrong of course

 

I think your maths is right, and it's not as much as my head worked out (your maths is better!) but it's still better than nothing. And that's assuming only 3% which is a fair guesstimate, but it's still a years fees better than where we are now, but your number do indeed show the real challenge we face...if £5 a week only gets a years fee across someone entire working life then the problem is laid bare

[truman]

I think your maths is right, and it's not as much as my head worked out (your maths is better!) but it's still better than nothing. And that's assuming only 3% which is a fair guesstimate, but it's still a years fees better than where we are now, but your number do indeed show the real challenge we face...if £5 a week only gets a years fee across someone entire working life then the problem is laid bare

 

At the moment 3% seems like a big return...