Three-quarters of over-50s expect the government to pay for all or most of their long-term care needs, research suggests.
Attitudes did shift slightly when told about the ‘demographic time bomb' facing the country, but only 18% felt most or all the elderly should pay for their own care, the study by Partnership found.
However, awareness of the problem was already consistently high among respondents before they were questioned, with 77% of 50-59-year-olds, 81% of 60-69-year-olds and 72% of 70-79-year-olds having heard of it.
Only those aged 80 or older had a markedly lower rate with 58% knowing about the population changes.
Prior to being told about the prospect of having a greater population of elderly than young, 81% believed care should be full funded by government (43%) or partly funded by government with only the better off contributing (38%) to their own needs.
This reduced to 79% (38% and 41% respectively) after being told of the impending demographic challenge.
Initially, just 16% felt the burden should predominantly fall on those taking up the care, with 15% saying most elderly should make a contribution and only 1% believing it was everyone's responsibility.
After being reminded of the demographic problems and the free benefits that they may have received throughout life that are not present for the younger generations, this increased to 18% (17% and 1% respectively) suggesting most or all should contribute.
Those benefits include: substantial increases in house value; free or nearly free university education; final salary or non-contributory pension schemes; being able to buy shares at privatisation; child benefit for all families, and that ‘younger people will be worse off than the baby-boom generation because of likely tax rises and increases in educational costs and house prices'.
Willingness to pay for elderly care was linked with social grade, with those of the higher social class (AB and C1) most willing to make a contribution in both cases.
Partnership suggested the results show that most older people (59%) believe that the elderly should make a contribution compared to 38% who do not.
Something it said contradicts opinions that many believed the elderly were resistant to paying a contribution to their long term care.
Chris Horlick, managing director of Care at Partnership, said the research is very significant.
"People aged over 60 have over four-fifths of the wealth of the UK and have over £1 trillion in un-mortgaged equity, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
"There are also now more people aged over 60 than under 16. There will not only be fewer younger people to pay the taxes to fund the elderly but they are also likely to be worse off than the ‘baby boomer' generation."
"It is a very telling statistic that 59% of elderly people will be willing to make a contribution to their care. This is a significant increase by the elderly once confronted with the benefits they have enjoyed compared to the young," Horlick added.
