Paying for the Care of the Elderly
I’m getting there fast and hopefully, I’ll have enough money to keep me in my old age, but others will not.
There is an article in today’s Times, which lays out whether the state or families should pay. It is a difficult question and judging by some of the comments, a large number of people find it unfair that they should pay extra, after they have contributed all their life.
In my view we have to radically change several things.
The first is that we will all have to work later. I have no intention of giving up on work at 65, as my father did and it killed him. But seriously many of us do jobs that we can continue to do on a full or part-time basis for a few more years. If I was Chancellor of the Exchequer, I would give a tax advantage to older workers, as the longer they work the greater the savings will be to the government’s coffers.
I would also abolish Inheritance Tax. I’ve had letters published about this in the Financial Times and know that it can be funded by perhaps two pence on Income Tax. This would give those who wanted to pass on their wealth much greater flexibility and many would move into much smaller well-equipped homes, that would allow them to stay self-sufficient for longer. I’ve been told that some stay in run-down large houses to minimise tax Inheritance Tax liabilities. That is wrong on many fronts.
Inheritance Tax will never be abolished though, because of the politics of envy. Unless of course someone does it in the EU, like Spain or Italy, and everybody rushes to the sun to avoid paying the tax.
We must also find some way to reward those who have looked after their finances. Many others have been profligate and have no assets when they can no longer cope. How this will be done is the difficult part, but perhaps we should give extra tax relief for pensions and savings. This could actually be paid for by making the systems a lot simpler, so that you didn’t have to use one of the armies of pointless intermediaries.
But it is not all gloom!
All of these elderly will be a big market for new products and services. Just take the StairSteady, which is an invention to help the elderly and infirm climb stairs. There are loads of things that need inventing.
In a few years time, a large proportion of the retired will be Internet-savvy. This in itself will enable local self-help groups to be created. New hand-help devices will also make things better.
We often tend to say that it will all get bad and even worse. But often we realise that the doom-mongers are wrong. As an example what happened to the Millennium Bug?
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The Anonymous Widower 
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