Pensioners to pay double cap for care home fees

Elderly pensioners face ‘shocking' care home costs as most will pay double the Government’s cap of £70,000 because many costs are not included, Institute of Actuaries warns

Actuaries have calculated that the average bill pensioners will have to pay for a care home could be almost double the value of the new cap

Pensioners putting their faith in the Government to limit care fees are “in for a shock”, experts warn today.

Actuaries have calculated that the average bill they will have to pay could be almost double the value of the new cap.

The fine print of the latest rules suggest that only one in 13 men and one in seven women will benefit from the much vaunted announcement that care fees will be limited to £72,000 per person.

In an analysis, the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) said much of what people pay for care will not be covered by the cap. That includes not only bed and board fees for those in nursing homes but also a significant slice of the direct care costs for those who have to pay their own bills. It means only a few elderly people would survive long enough to benefit from the cap. Those who do will have run up £140,000 on average before qualifying, with some spending as much as £250,000, the institute claims.

Age UK said the report backed its own warnings that the “fanfare” over the reforms risked leaving millions sleepwalking into a crisis.

 John Bingham, The Telegraph
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