Re: Winter 2013/14 | Page 91

Under the reforms anyone faced with selling their home to pay for care will instead be able to defer the payments by effectively mortgaging their house to the state until their death. However, Dr Ros Altman, a pension’s expert and former government policy adviser on ageing, said: “I don’t think anybody has properly woken up to the scale of the crisis that we face in social care. The average cost of a room in a care home now stands at just over £28,000 We have got a pensions crisis because we have millions of people who haven’t enough money saved for their pension – the social care crisis is far worse.” As this research highlights, there are far too many people worrying that they will lose everything they have worked for. Not only that, there can be serious financial implications for the next generations too. The good news is that there are solutions to protecting your assets against the cost of long term care and nursing home fees. The first step is to write a Will in a tax efficient manner utilising all of the allowances that the government set out. The next step is to check how you own your property –