Verenigd Koninkrijk: Eigen bijdrage £75,000 in ouderenzorg vanaf 2017-18
Als het plan van de Engelse staatsecretaris doorgaat zullen vanaf 2017-2018 in het Verenigd Koninkrijk ouderen een eigen bijdrage gaan betalen van £75,000 voordat de staat begint te betalen. Dit bedrag is specifiek oor de zorg, nog uitgezonderd van voedings- en verblijfskosten. De drempel voor vermogen komt te liggen op £123,000, een grote stijging van het huidige niveau van £23,250. Het voordeel is dat het duidelijk is, je weet hoeveel je maximaal kwijt zult zijn aan je eigen ouderenzorg / zorg voor je ouders. Voor wie oplet: het verblijf in een ouderenwoning kost rond de £30,000 per jaar, maar het verblijf is doorgaans niet meer dan twee jaar, dus de meeste ouderen zullen helemaal geen gebruik gaan maken van deze financiering door de staat. En de Economist meldt dat lokale overheden die om geld verlegen zitten zuiniger worden, waarbij ze in sommige gevallen menen dat mensen geen zorg meer nodig hebben terwijl die het al jaren kregen.
Elderly care: Old times
The government has a crack at social care for the old
The Economist, Feb 16th 2013
ENGLAND’S system of care for the elderly has long awaited an overhaul. The cost of it can demolish people’s estates: one in ten will run up expenses of at least £100,000 ($155,000). The overall care bill is growing as people live longer. Andrew Dilnot, an economist called in to review the funding of elderly care in 2010, estimated that the cost of the current system would increase from 1.2% of GDP in 2009-10 to 1.7% by 2029-30. At some point, many believe, the health system and the care system will have to be brought together. This week the government tackled some of these problems, by outlining changes to the way in which care is paid for.
From 2017-18 those not eligible for means-tested support will be asked to pay £75,000 before the state steps in, excluding food and accommodation costs. The threshold for the new means test will be £123,000, a big rise on the present level, a lowly £23,250.
Politically, the main prize of reform is to lift the threat that people will have to sell their homes to pay for their dotage. By setting a limit on personal spending on care—albeit a higher one than Mr Dilnot suggested—Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, is protecting homeowners and those with modest savings. He also wants to ensure that the cost of care can be deducted after death from the value of the remaining estate, so old folk can remain in their homes during their lifetimes. This, he hopes, will offset anger among Tory voters over the party’s failure to make good on a 2007 pledge to exempt all estates worth less than £1m from inheritance tax.
The government presents the reforms as a measure to protect humble homeowners, who, in theory, stand to lose the largest proportion of their assets under the current system. The overall effect however is to raise the cost to the state and make the funding of elderly care less progressive (see chart). Few will benefit greatly. Care homes in areas popular with pensioners cost around £30,000 a year, but the average stay is around two years, so not many will spend enough to reach the limit at which the state steps in. And cash-strapped local councils are becoming stingier, sometimes judging people not to need care who would have received it a few years ago.
As so often, England is trying to split the difference between other countries’ approaches to welfare. In Scandinavia, the state pays for all long-term care. Elsewhere in Europe means-testing is dominant. America resembles the English approach, but without a cap, so that the elderly are expected to use up their savings before the state will help. But a closer example is available. Over the border in Scotland, to the chagrin of many English pensioners, basic social care is provided for nothing.
http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21571931-government-has-crack-social-care-old-old-times
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