Government plans to reform social care funding have left millions confused about how the reforms will impact on them and is seen as leading many to believe that they no longer need to plan for their own later life care.
More than two-fifths of UK adults aged 18 or over, (equal to around 22 million people) said that they did not understand the proposed reforms to social care policy.
Uncertainty was most evident around the level of the proposed cap and ongoing daily living costs payable even after meeting the cap. Two-thirds of people failed to correctly identify the limit of the proposed care cap (£86,000), with just a third successfully managing to do so. Four in five did not know that they may have to pay more than £86,000 overall once daily living costs and excess fees above the Local Authority rate were included.
The findings have led to industry calls on the government to communicate more detail on its proposals claiming that it is worrying that the details released so far have left the vast majority of people with completely the wrong end of the stick.
Stephen Lowe at Just Group commented, “Confusion is rife and the government has a duty to address this. Our research has found evidence that a significant minority felt that these social care reforms meant forward planning was not needed any more.
“It’s easy for people to put future care costs in the ‘too difficult’ box and then arrive at the point of needing care completely unprepared. The government needs to ramp up its publicity and information campaigns so people have the best chance to plan. Simply announcing plans and waltzing off to leave people to work it out for themselves is no help to anyone.”
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