Long Term Care – What’s Involved?

The good news is, we’re all living longer. The not so good news is that, according to Age UK, the gap between average Life Expectancy and Disabled Free Life Expectancy (DFLE) is growing faster than ever before. This means that more of us are spending more time in later life with multiple long term conditions, frailty, dementia and social care needs.

In addition to this, the fastest growing age bracket is the 85+ age group. This has increased by 0.9 million to almost 1.4 million in 40 years – giving an increase of 186%. This means there are almost three times as many people aged 85 and over as 40 years ago.

Whilst in real terms, the government are spending more money on Long Term Care – and are committed to continually increasing the budget, it’s unlikely to keep pace with the frightening rate at which the demand for Long Term Care is set to grow. And that has implications for all of us.

Given these facts, we’re impressing upon our clients the need to plan for the eventuality that they may well end up needing some form of Long Term Care in the future.

This post covers some of the basics, a more detailed explanation can be found by clicking here.

Long Term Care – The Basics

• Long Term Care funding falls into two categories – the assessment for the contribution towards the costs of care if you are receiving care at home, and the cost of assessment for when care takes place in a Residential Care Home
• If you’re receiving care in your own home, the value of your home is disregarded when assessing your funding. If you’re in a Residential Care Home, the value of your home is included in the assessment and your property will be sold to fund your care
• The value of your home may be disregarded under certain circumstances. For instance, if your stay in a care or nursing home is expected to be temporary and you intend to return home, or where you intend to sell your home to purchase something more suitable for your needs, the value would be disregarded. The value may also be disregarded when your partner, former partner, civil partner or another family member (that falls in to certain categories) still occupies your home
• If you have savings of more than £23,250, you will be fully self-funded, i.e. you’ll have to pay for your own care needs in full, until the level of your savings erodes to below that level
• Once your savings fall below £23,250, Social Services will start to contribute towards your care costs. When your savings fall below £14,250, Social Services will pay your care costs in full
• Care in a Residential Care Home or Nursing Home is generally far more expensive than care in your own home and will erode your savings far more quickly

If you need any help or advice with regards to Long Term Care planning, please contact us on 02380 879243.