The Government has now published a Green Paper in an attempt to address the contentious issue of the funding of long term care.  It presents three suggestions, and a consultation period will run until November 2009 when it expects that the chosen system will be published in a White Paper next year.   It is proposed that the system itself will be phased in from 2014.

The Government has ruled out funding the whole cost itself as this would require taxes to be increased substantially.

Should we therefore stop worrying about how we are to address the issue of care home and nursing home fees?  Certainly not:-

·       Whichever system is chosen some cost and we do not know at this stage how much will fall on the individual.

·       Also it is not certain that the measure will reach the statute books given that a general election is looming.

·       In addition the country’s finances are in a weakened state as a result of the banking crisis and one wonders where the Government’s money is going to come from.

Accordingly we are advising our clients that they should still plan their financial affairs as they have in the past on the assumption that the cost of care home and nursing home fees will fall on the individual.

If you require any advice please do not hesitate to contact us.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 9:06 am and is filed under News, Tax Planning, Wills & Probate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.