A Seaham solicitor is calling on the Chancellor to end the worry about the unlimited cost of old age care by finally introducing his long promised and much delayed cap on personal care fees in the Budget.
Andrew Simpson, Lead Panel Solicitor with Seaham-based legal and financial planning specialist Ensure Inheritance, says that introducing a cap on costs for personal care would allow people to make plans for their long term care and reduce the widely held fear of being forced to sell the family home to pay for it.
He says: “A cap of £72,000 for personal care costs was to have been introduced this April (2016), but has been delayed until at least 2020. I would like to see the Chancellor stick to his earlier promise and bring in the care fees cap next month.
“With current legislation demanding that anyone owning assets valued in excess of £23,250 is required to make a 100% contribution towards the cost of their care, it’s no wonder that this a major concern for older people.
“Although this legislation also prevents people from deliberately moving their assets in order to avoid paying care fees, it is possible to protect the family home by using a Wealth Preservation Trust, provided the owner is in relatively good health and not presently intending going into long term care, and has genuine concerns about who will benefit from their assets.
“Unfortunately the lack of a care fees cap has meant that there has been little provision or take-up of insurance products for care, so establishing a trust for estate planning purposes is being increasingly used by people keen to avoid sacrificing the family home to pay for their care.”
Ensure Inheritance has produced a booklet which provides further information on Wealth Preservation Trusts. For a free copy, please contact Ensure Inheritance on tel. 0191 338 5143, via email at info@ensureinheritance.co.uk or via its website www.ensureinheritance.co.uk
Based in Seaham in County Durham, Ensure Inheritance provides a range of legal and financial planning services which help protect financial assets to provide their clients and their loved ones with peace of mind. In addition to long term care planning and wealth preservation trusts, services include Wills and Estate planning, funeral planning, inheritance tax planning, powers of attorney, court of protection deputyships, and probate.