To feel angry at how few people make a plan for their own old age

[OptimismvsRealism]

We are all going to end up in a bad way unless we're lucky enough to drop down dead unexpectedly

Why do most people live in denial?

I agree there is a lack of suitable properties. It is why people end up being ripped off by those service apartments.
The choice where I live is largely expensive detached houses, or social housing warden aided or private warden apartments, both with high service charges. Those with no income except benefits get the warden aided social housing paid for them by the state. Most other people just struggle on in their terraced house or semi. ;pts of people live downstairs.

DD and her partner are in their late 30s - they have reasonably paid jobs 🤞but still can't afford to buy their own home and have just had (an unplanned but most welcome) healthy baby. So I'm not sure how or why they should be planning for their old age! They can only live from day to day.

If all you have is your state pension, the difference between attendance allowance and the cost will be paid by the state. But lots of people do pay the full cost themselves.

Top-up benefits are part of the welfare state for the rich i.e. they allow low wages to be paid. I object to them. Slight rant over (till end)! Sorry about that!
Most people are in no position to plan for the future. Unless they have a profession rather than a job (most people) pensions are not provided for or are not generous, and people are relying on the state pension. Even those in a profession can come a'cropper, because they lose their job and their pension is then frozen. Poverty in old age is now much rarer, but there will still be e.g. women eking out a reduced state pension, and made really miserable because the retirement age (originally set so that husband and wife retired roughly together, a 5 year age gap being the average) has risen, so the retirement they thought they would have with their DP does not come and they are widowed before they retire and his pension dies with him.
Solution? Everyone have more children. Train people for proper jobs and target immigration, bearing in mind immigration is not cost-free to the country (though it is to the employer - another welfare state benefit for the well-off!) as it requires additional infrastructure.

Why are you angry though ? You don't need to plan if you're happy on the pension from your national insurance payments

@Melisha
I agree there is a lack of suitable properties. It is why people end up being ripped off by those service apartments
Yes and WHY do govts allow the companies that own & run them to exploit the elderly like that?😡

I’m lucky enough to have a plan as does DH, I took out a pension at 21 and am now 58. Issue was back then it wasn’t pushed. So I know people like SIL who did benefit from lower house prices, earned well but lives for the moment and never plans. I also know people who have never ever earned very much.

Plus shit happens, I have three friends divorcing, one will be fine she is a high earner though she had kids later in life so still has small kids at 55, one is only 10. One other will be ok and the other is quite frankly going to have an awful time as she was a SAHM for 13 years. All of these women are mid to later fifties and anyway you look at it even the one who is a decent earner at that stage of life it’s all split and you just do not have as much time to shore up coffers

Maybe I'm not in the financial position to have a choice but be fine with it?

This is an important subject. I think it's good to share opinions & discuss the various issues involved.

Interesting, thank you for sharing.

I'm.planning on living a good life, working as long as I can (I love my work and can up and down hours) and dying instantly like both my parents. If that doesn't look likely I'm planning on dignitas.

The op talks about how few people make plans

Only 1 in 6 people die intestate , and I guess some of them will be younger as people under 40 rarely have a willl

So 5 out of 6 people do do something

Yes - so true - middle aged daughter / daughter in law here.
I cannot put my adult kids through that.

I cant help but feel that the main function of care homes is to liquidate the wealth captured in the housing asset bubble☝

While they simultaneously keep money aside in case they need care I assume!?

@OptimismvsRealism Are you Suella Braverman? I hear your Pop Con meeting went well (snigger)

I do get where you are coming from OP but I'm unsure what the solution is. I think it's just too "big" and too unknown for most people to plan for.

For example:

• You might drop dead suddenly or you might be in a nursing home for 10 years costing £50k per year - how do you financially plan for that?
• You might need a carer but there are no carers available - how do you plan for that?
• You might get dementia and need someone to advocate for you in hospital or nursing home, but you don't want your kids to have to do it, or you don't have kids - so who should do it?
• You might worry about reduced mobility and getting upstairs, but all the bungalows are super expensive and out of town away from amenities - what do you do then?

I think we need to address it at a societal level as well as at an individual level.

@DisappearingGirl I totally agree. What needs to happen first is house buying that meets the needs of the population, rather than the markets.
So I would allow developers to build lots of new housing that is smaller cheaper housing for young people, and small bungalows for older people - bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom. That would allow a lot of people to live at home okay for longer.

My grandad was like that and grandmother maybe a month in hospital
My other grandmother was in a care hime for a good few years.
You just never know.
Live your best life , but downsize at the right time (not when you have your first fall)
And get rid of the clutter- it's just stuff.

This.
People put stuff off cause it's not always easy.
But I won't leave it to my kids.

My plan is to go to a country that allows medically assisted dying!

So I have a plan. This is to stay in my house until I die. However it might not work out like that. I could get dementia very early or become very frail. As I don’t know when I will die, when I will need carers and if I will need to go into a home a really can’t do much planning.

Nobody seems to be allowed to pass away peacefully anymore. Pneumonia wasn't called the old man's friend for nothing. Now they are pumped full of antibiotics, which is happening right now with a 95 year old aunt, who is still alive but can't move or talk, and having to pay for the pleasure in a nursing home

@AzureAnt then decline antibiotics for her? I am not denying a care home may keep people alive for longer for profit. But I have first hand experience of a number of elderly relatives declining treatment or relatives declining it on their behalf. Her next of kin, that she should have appointed, should be saying whether she has antibiotics if she can not communicate.

And the Liverpool Pathway scandal shows medics are all too willing to let older people die, even when they could have recovered.