PEOPLE now in their fifties on moderate incomes will be unable to cover the costs of care when they retire, a report published today concludes.
The report from the King’s Fund, the health policy think-tank, calls on the government urgently to rethink its policy on pensions and long-term care. If it does, not more people will have to sell their homes and fall back on the state, it claims.
The report’s co-author, Justin Keen, says the Government only has two realistic options: to compel people in their thirties or forties to put money into insurance programmes; or to be much more explicit about how much old age will cost. A further option, unpopular with ministers, is for big increases in state funding.
Launching the report