Value of homes to help fund elderly care

THE Government is considering a radical new policy for the care of elderly people which would see families use the value of their private homes to help fund the increasing cost of long-term care.

The suggestion follows a year of research by a group of civil servants and advisers which estimated that the cost of residential care will mushroom from today’s figure of €900 million a year to €6.8 billion by 2051.

The obvious exchequer implications of such a dramatic increase, plus increasing demands for a better and more co-ordinated care service for elderly people, has prompted the Government to make an attempt to forge a new policy direction as part of ongoing social partnership talks.