1nvest wrote:Don't bank on not having to pay for care costs. When LA funded the terms/conditions can be dreadful, unfit even for a dog, and pressures are only making that worse/more common, as are pressures set to rise (increasing numbers). When the crunch comes many will opt instead to self-fund alternatives. Of the order £60,000/year lower end, casual care, upwards. For more intense care that can easily double or more. Once exhausted one has to consider whether family members might take out debts to continue with the same level/standard of care or fall back on what/where the LA dictates.
Ball park guide figures, £10K pension + £5K care allowance out of £60K costs = £45K/year. Average period in care = 4 years, so £180K average. But obviously being a average and some may be in care just for weeks/months, others maybe 10+ years. My mother whose in (dementia) care is 93, but physically fit/well enough to maybe get to be 100+
The question of care is another one altogether and we've had ENDLESS discussions around it as a family! lol!
So, mum has around £43k in S&S (some ISA some not as inherited from dad, see OP) There are also 2 timeshares, which will mature in 5 years and 13 years, at which point they can be sold for some amount of money (although she's been offered £10k to sell them back now, which she may or may not take). There is also cash now, which is topping up her income. Finally, there is the bungalow which at today's value is around £135k (the other half is in a trust for me, my brothers and my son)
If mum goes into care after october 2025, then £100k of her assets are protected. She will fund her own care at a good care home, until her assets decline to £100k in value.
At that point LA will step in and offer to pay some of her costs. let's say she's in a home that costs £4k per month. The LA might offer in the region of £1000 a month for her care, which leaves a shortfall of £3k per month. She'll have an income of around £850pm, and the rest will be paid when the bungalow sells. The £100k that the LA doesn't take for her care will give around 4 further years of care before family has to step in.
So I'm not too worried about care costs.
Jopo1