Social care

Funding Future Care Need: the role of councils in supporting individuals to access the capital in their homes

This is the latest report in the Foundation’s work to improve outcomes in the long-term care system for low earners. Many low earners lose out in the current care and support system and find themselves in a funding gap; too rich to qualify for state support, having over the threshold of £23,000 of equity in their house, and too poor to meet care costs out of their relatively low incomes.

Key points

  • This report argues that there is a 20-30 year window when older generations will have significant amounts of housing equity that could be used to meet their care costs and that councils should play a greater role in supporting individuals to access the equity in their homes to pay for their care.
  • Our work has identified that although councils often have the powers in place to help individuals access their equity, these powers are often not used, not understood and implementation varies across the country.
  • We argue that accessing this equity is part of an interim solution to help those who are struggling to pay for their care now but also a lasting funding settlement and reformed system is crucial.

 

Further reading

Who cares?
The experience of social care workers, and the enforcement of employment rights in the sector
·
Nye Cominetti
To govern is to choose
The choices facing the Chancellor this autumn
·
Torsten Bell, Adam Corlett, Daniel Tomlinson
A caring tax rise?
The impacts of a potential increase in National Insurance
·
Torsten Bell, Adam Corlett