Financial services firm, Just Group, has released its Just Group Care Report 2025 showing that many underestimate the cost of later life care.
The report, which focuses on social care reform, showed that 85% of those who had previously helped find care for a loved one were shocked by the cost.
Of those asked, 60% of over 45s thought the cost of a year's residential care was less that £60,000, compared to industry estimates of average care costs being £66,456 for self-funders.
Out of the 2,500 respondents, 31% thought the cost of care would be up to £30,000 per year, less than half of estimated figures.
Stephen Lowe, group communications director, Just Group, said: "With an estimated four in five people aged 65+ likely to require some level of care before they die, millions of families are sleepwalking towards a nasty shock.
"A combination of the failure of successive governments to grasp the nettle on care funding reforms and a sense that planning for care is too depressing has caused people to tune out of the social care issue."
According to a report released by the Government earlier this year, dubbed Adult Social Care Reform: The Cost of Inaction, in 2023/24, £32 billion was spent on adult social care.
Lowe said: "With the recommendations of the newly established Casey Commission on care funding years away, the Government has a responsibility to make clear what the current rules are and ensure people understand their financial responsibilities for later-life care.
"Too often people are left grappling with unexpected and large financial costs at a time of crisis. Our view is that the Government must support people dealing with the system as it is now, not how it might be in the future, by clarifying its contribution to care costs and creating a ‘Care Wise' guidance service to encourage people to plan ahead."
