The financial pain of long-term care
IF YOU feared that the future was looking grim, best not look at today’s front page story, or even worse, the States report from Employment & Social Security.
For in a move which will almost certainly have implications for the families of every reader, the future of long-term care is looking bleak.
Not in terms of the care being offered – though the very existence of the diminishing sector is under threat – but in working out how it will be paid for.
Many in retirement are bothered, at least, about facing a future in long-term care.
First off, they don’t want to go.
Secondly, and importantly, they don’t want to be faced with paying what are very significant bills, especially if the person in the room next door is having their fees paid by the state. After all, that generation especially worked hard for what they’ve got, and they don’t want to see it frittered away.
We should at least praise ESS for having the political courage to act where others wouldn’t and trying to secure the very sector that we need.
The committee’s report is, however, just a sticking plaster over a massive financial and capacity problem.
It is likely to irritate and infuriate islanders in making a grab for their hard-earned savings, while they can fully expect that there will be a further claim on their money to follow in the next few years.