Is ending the triple lock to fund a care service fair....

[mids2019]

To me this is actually not a hugely left wing proposal as middle classes with occupational and private pensions will not notice the reduced increases in state pension significantly.

However poorer pensioners with little other pension provision may be impacted a lot to essentially fund a care service that will be disprotioanrly help the middle classes as their life expectancy is greater.

Is it fair that our poorest pensioners get less to support a care service which would mean a millionaire pensioner would not nèed to sell their assets to access it?

So at 70, I am effectively on death row

I’m two years away from it. It’s an outrageously brutal idea. I just asked the GP to stop prescribing antibiotics for my mum in that situation. And they did.

No of course not, the state pension will not keep up with inflation and we will have disgraceful pensioner poverty again. Major reform of pension credit needs to happen, probably the only country in the world where just having the legal right to be here means you can claim more money in state benefits than the state pension, it’s just so ridiculous. I am afraid the link of how long you have worked/ lived here and how much money you get from the Government needs to be brought back.

I notice the Government when talking about the triple lock call it pensioner spending which will include all those with no entitlement to a state pension as they for example only arrived in 2021 through freedom of movement and are now getting pension credit.

I read on here a post advocating ending blood pressure tablets for over 70s. because we aren't dying fast enough.

It is brutal because the reality of extended frailty is brutal.

If there arent LPAs in place GPs dont necessarily take any notice of what family says.

I remember turning up at my parents when they were late 70s to help get manure in for Dads garden. Mum was carrying planks to lay down, so we could get wheelbarrows full of manure up to the back garden from the pile dumped in front of the house.

The NHS gave my parents an extra 20 years over what they would have had if they had had the same care that their parents got. Yay for the NHS.

Have you tried it? Because the GP was in complete agreement with me.

I agree. This just feeds into the general publics misperception of what things cost. You see it everytime the question of What would you cut? comes up and people suggest stopping bookbug sessions etc.

I really don't think they've thought through the "free nursing home place for everyone who needs it" proposal. Even though my family would likely hugely benefit from it.
There are millions of very rich pensioners in the UK who can well afford to pay for their own nursing care.

I’m sick of the entitlement of people like you.

This year for April 27 rise it was on earnings, 3.9%

Or we could look at the costs associated with keeping severely disabled children with no quality of life alive. Many of these would have died peacefully in years gone by.

And will continue to pay because the quality is unlikely to meet their requirements.

Where are the downsizers moving to? Who will they be competing with homes for?

Another solution would be to stop giving all our money away in foreign aid or to those who arrive here purely to claim benefits (having never paid a penny into our tax or national insurance systems).
We cannot afford it!

That didn’t take long, did it? There are lots of other threads to post this xenophobia on.

I think everyone over 18 should have to pay NI (with a few exceptions for severe disability) including those on benefits and not working. Arguably they should be paying tax too on any benefits above the tax allowance. It’s wrong that the state pension, a contributory benefit, is taxable and other benefits are not. I

The problem with social care is the supply (staff). We need to pay better to get better standards. And it is only fair that those who need it pay for it. If the inheritance vanishes so be it. No-one should expect to inherit at the expense of their parents needs in old age

With the so called death tax on a house
would they be taking it twice
like say I die first ( so they put a charge on my share )

then my husband dies
house is sold and they get my share 10percent from when I died do they get another 10 percent of my husbands share

Unfortunately at DM's CH the GP is conspicuous only by his absence. Contact is via weekly phone calls from the CH, no other contact with GP is allowed.

CHs are caught between a rock and a hard place. If there is no LPA or the attorneys dont agree then the default is to continue to treat.

My experience with DM and previously DMIL has seriously coloured my views. I am working on the wording for my own Advanced Directive (legally binding if witnessed so I need to get the wording right). I do not want to end up like my DM.

You are anyway. We all are. Humans are mortal.

Most of us could live longer if we had perfect healthcare, diet and lifestyles. We certainly could have more healthy years. The question is, where do we draw the line and accept that nobody lives forever and keeping someone alive with a terrible quality of life isn't a good use of resources when others are dying due to receiving crap healthcare from an underfunded and overstretched NHS? We can't have it all.

I'll be interested to see what's in Louise Casey's report about social care. As a pensioner, personally I would be fine with the abolition of the triple lock. While of course it won't be enough to completely fund a social care service,it would be an intentional start.

I can't see that pensioner poverty would be an issue - poor pensioners have many different top ups - pension credit, free council tax, their rent paid, free dentistry. It's the pensioners who have small occupational pensions I feel sorry for - they have to manage without any support at all, as they don't qualify for these things.

It would be comforting to think that your needs would be met, also I think with investment it would mean also investment in the training and career progression for care staff who are so poorly paid at present.

I would also be happy to see a levy on a deceased person's estate which could also be put towards the care service - I know this is controversial but why not? Surely say paying 10% for example after you're dead is far better than losing virtually 100% of your assets when you're in a care home?

Whatever you think of Andy Burnham, he has first hand experience on this one with his father and I think it's great that at last someone has the motivation to start to tackle this difficult issue. It will affect everyone at some point.

It has to be personal choice. What if someone's religion forbids assisted suicide?

Reminds me of the Monty Python sketch in the Holy Grail. Bring out your Dead - I am not dead.