While the Royal Commission on long term care (LTC) may have failed to grab the nation's attention in...
While the Royal Commission on long term care (LTC) may have failed to grab the nation's attention in the way the industry expected, long term care and the level of support the Government can provide for the elderly is now becoming a national concern.
As part of its NHS day, the BBC ran a nation-wide poll, asking viewers what areas of the health service the NHS should prioritise. Accident and emergency waiting times and cancer screening may hit the headlines, but they were placed further down the agenda than free long term care in the final results.
More than 73,000 people said all care for the elderly should be paid for by the Government.
This has been one of the primary objectives of recent research from the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR). Like the Royal Commission, it proposed free personal care as well as free nursing care and outlined a number initiatives the Government could implement to raise the cash ' one of which is an end to equity-based Isas.
In an ideal world, elderly people who have paid taxes all their lives should not have to pay for care. But having already rejected the same proposal from the Royal Commission once, the IPPR report will carry little sway with the Government. It has stated what it will and will not provide to those in need of care and shows no sign of budging.
This does not mean organisations such as UNISON and Age Concern should stop lobbying for change ' but such campaigns should not dominate the debate.
Your clients need to plan their retirement based around the Government's position today, not around what it might to do at some stage in the future.
As the BBC poll demonstrates, people are concerned about the cost of care in old age and now, more than ever, will recognise the importance of LTC in the retirement planning process. Politicians may be known for their u-turns, but this is one decision the Government is unlikely to change.
Political uncertainty is no longer an excuse. IFAs have a duty to ask every client in or approaching retirement how they would pay a care home bill.
Rachel Williams, editor
