Planning for future social care
In the context of reforms to the social care system currently taking place, this chapter provides findings for the newly introduced module of questions on people’s awareness and understanding of how social care is funded, and whether people have taken any steps to plan for their own future care needs.
Highlights
The questions were asked of adults aged 30 and over.
- When asked about awareness of a future cap in care costs, now expected to be introduced in April 2020, 32% said they were aware of a cap, with men more likely than women to be aware (34% and 30% respectively). 63% reported that they had not heard about the future cap in care costs.
- Participants were asked whether they had thought about how they will pay for care when they are older. 14% said that they had thought about it a great deal, 35% had thought about it a little, 40% said that they hadn’t thought about it at all, and 11% knew that they should have thought about it but hadn’t yet. The proportion who reported having thought about how to pay for future care a great deal increased with age, from 9% aged 30-44 to 23% aged 75 and over.
- Participants were asked what actions (from a list) they had taken that might contribute to paying for future care. Joining a company pension scheme was the most frequently mentioned action (43%). Smaller proportions mentioned other actions including buying property, joining a private pension scheme or starting to save for older age (13- 22%). 36% said that they had not taken any of the listed actions.
- Men were more likely than women to have taken each action listed, apart from buying property where proportions of men and women were similar. Conversely, women were more likely to report having taken none of the actions: 41% of women compared with 30% of men.
- There was marked variation according to income group in the proportion who had taken no actions that might contribute to funding future care needs, ranging from 14% in the highest income quintile to 62% in the lowest.