Social Care – Page 2 – pensionsandsavings.com

Progressive reform agenda to improve quality of life for older citizens, especially women

November 4, 2019 Ros Altmann Comments 10 comments

Here are some thoughts about urgent policy proposals to improve the fairness of the National Insurance system for women and for the aging population. Top 5 policy recommendations: Extend triple lock to Pension Credit for oldest, poorest pensioners. Allow early access to State Pension for ill-health, long service or carers. Recognise WASPI concerns and address hardship caused by increased state pension age. Remove National Insurance loopholes that cause women to lose State Pension credits. Offer free personal social care…

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Four Seasons is just latest example of social care crisis which is crying out for funding reform

May 1, 2019 Ros Altmann Comments 0 Comment

Financial restructuring of Four Seasons highlights Social Care funding crisis while Government keeps avoiding urgently-needed reform Private equity firms and hedge funds are not stable stewards for elderly care Independent Care Home sector has been an accident waiting to happen as financial engineering has driven ownership changes. Care sector also hit by rising wage and pension costs, falling council funding and Brexit-related staff shortages. Elderly Care should not be a financial game – it has people’s lives attached….

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Budget 2018 – my first thoughts

October 29, 2018 Ros Altmann Comments 1 comment

Chancellor plays it safe – sensible reforms to boost growth and some nice surprises. Glad to see no big changes on pensions. Increase in personal tax threshold to £12,500 will boost auto-enrolment in April 2019 when worker contributions double. But yet another missed opportunity to find money for social care. So there we have it. The last Budget before Brexit, cleverly crafted to ensure measures will please as many groups as possible who might have been tempted to vote it…

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Social Care and Auto-Enrolment

September 17, 2018 Ros Altmann Comments 0 Comment

Auto-enrolment for care funds could help younger workers but not older generations. For babyboomers who’ve already retired, auto-enrolment via employers won’t help. A 21st Century National Insurance system should include later life care as well as pensions. Pensions, ISAs, housing, or other savings might help those already in later life. Green Paper on social care will need wide range of measures, implemented urgently, to spread burden more fairly within and between generations. The Secretary of State for Social Care has…

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Care ISAs: Over-60s have £300billion in ISAs which could help care funding crisis

August 19, 2018 Ros Altmann Comments 1 comment

Britain’s over-60s have more than £300billion in ISAs which could help solve the care crisis. Over 8million over 60s have £35,000-£40,000 in ISAs. £1trillion+ earmarked to pay future pensions but nothing for future care costs. Government’s should introduce incentives for Care ISA. Britain faces a funding crisis for elderly care with no money set aside for future care needs: The country cannot cope with the costs of caring for today’s elderly population as more than one million older people who…

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Vital pension and retirement policies delayed – perhaps casualties of Brexit

July 23, 2018 Ros Altmann Comments 0 Comment

As Parliament breaks for the Summer, there are vital issues left in abeyance. Preparing for later life is essential in our aging population, but policies are on hold. Delays in dealing with social care funding leave a worsening care crisis all around us. Pensions Dashboard, cold-calling ban and ensuring low earners aren’t overcharged have all been delayed, despite the urgency. Over the past year, Ministers have promised a raft of measures designed to help people build up better pensions, improve…

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Funding crisis of elderly care services

May 29, 2018 Ros Altmann Comments 2 comments

This blog is an extended version of my letter published in today’s Times. Click here to view. May I offer some essential considerations for long-term solutions to the fragmentation and funding crisis of elderly care services, following recent reports by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, among others (Comment article by Paul Johnson). In the 1940s, William Beveridge designed the NHS as a ‘make-you-better’ service, offering acute interventions that cure patients who can resume normal life. It was never intended as…

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Digital Discrimination leaves millions of older people at risk

May 23, 2018 Ros Altmann Comments 5 comments

AgeUK finds Government guilty of digital age discrimination leaving millions of older people at risk of poverty. Elderly citizens denied benefit entitlements because they can’t cope online need special help. Be proud that Britain is leading many technological advances, but this risks older generations being increasingly marginalised by society. 3.8million older people in Britain today have never used the internet: Many of us are so used to online connections that we are in danger of forgetting how fast the technological…

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Don’t hit older workers to pay for social care – need a solution that is fair across and within generations

May 7, 2018 Ros Altmann Comments 0 Comment

Forcing pensioner workers to pay National Insurance is not a solution to care funding crisis Imposing new National Insurance on just one group introduces new unfairness and could be politically damaging Pensioners are not entitled to many of the benefits that National Insurance covers Working past pension age should be encouraged, not penalised to pay for other people’s care How could Government justify forcing pensioner workers to fund other people’s social care while non-working pensioners on huge pensions pay no…

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As care crisis worsens, Jeremy Hunt has a chance to improve both NHS and Social Care

January 9, 2018 Ros Altmann Comments 0 Comment

Golden opportunity to address the social care crisis must not be missed. Integration of healthcare and social care can improve the quality of both. Meaningful reform must end artificial and unfair division between dementia and cancer. As the population ages, the country’s care system simply isn’t fit for purpose: Social care available from local authorities is not providing good care for today’s elderly people (a cohort which is currently very small yet is causing such mayhem), and that lack of…

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