Long-term care, Dilnot and the adviser's role. Paul Robertson discusses all this with Partnership's Chris Horlick.
“And again, if you take a typical immediate needs annuity client, there will be a residue of the estate to invest, inheritance tax planning, and the adviser will talk to a power of attorney for the older person who will lead into the rest of the family. These are, typically, family decisions. If you do a good job and a good piece of advice around that, you can develop new customers.”
For those considering this sector, it seems to be an unwritten rule that any conversation about long-term care nowadays include the term “kicked into the long grass”.
Referring to the Dilnot Commission, the central question is will the government’s White Paper on the report commend most of its recommendations?
Many think Dilnot will be watered down – kicked into the long grass – as being too difficult at a bad time. Horlick, though, is optimistic.
“The Department of Health (DoH) is engaged in a consultation process and the financial services workstream within that is chaired by Nick Kirwan of the ABI.
“It is clear that the DoH wants as many interested parties to engage, so I expect some things contained with Dilnot to be included in the White Paper.
“I would expect that a national care needs assessment will be in there – portable across county boundaries – and quite a bit on better information and advice to be available for people in need of care. I would also hope for the development of a public debate around social care – who pays what, and so on – to be included in that.”
A cynic would say that is the easy bit. It was pointed out at the recent COVER Health and Protection Forum that there is no limit on the spending.
It all depends on where you start from and how much money you’ve got. Horlick is obviously worried that this has not been made clear.
SPIRALLING COSTS
“The cost of the Dilnot reforms are £1.7bn. In the context of both public spending as a whole and a social care system in need of urgent reform, that doesn’t seem too much.
“It fails to identify that just to stand still, given the ageing population and the longevity of that population, there is an additional cost. But I don’t blame Andrew Dilnot for this. It wasn’t his remit. Estimates vary, but I think the King’s Fund said £3bn to £5bn. You’ve got to add the Dilnot reforms on top of £3bn to £5bn to stand still.”
