A new survey by Saga Insurance has found that the grown up children of elderly parents may well end up financing their parents long term care from what was their inheritance.
As a company that works exclusively with the over 50’s Saga Insurance took the opportunity to discuss their plans and found that only 10 percent of people have actually discussed long term care for elderly parents. More worrying still perhaps is that nearly half of them fail to appreciate the actual costs, which are around GBP25 – 30,000 per year.
The view of nearly 60 percent of those who discussed the matter with Saga Insurance is that any inheritance will be used to finance the long term care parents may need. A large part of this may be that, with all the other financial pressures on people, trying to put aside money for parental care is just not possible, at least for the majority of the population.
Interest rates on nearly all the Nationwide Building Society International Sterling savings accounts are being reduced by between 0.25 and 0.3 percent.
The international arm of the Nationwide Building Society is not cutting interest rates on their Euro or Dollar savings accounts though, these will retain their existing rates. In addition they are actually increasing the rate of interest paid on their Lifetime Guarantee Account, going up by 0.2 percent. This gives it a first year rate of 6.4 percent.
Currency based accounts can be subject to fluctuations as the exchange rates vary following economic changes, hence the cuts announced here by the Nationwide Building Society.
The Nationwide Building Society, in its latest results for July, has found that 20 percent of the adult population are not putting any savings aside.
They also found that the number of people saving on a regular basis also fell, down to 46 percent from 54 percent just three months ago. Two thirds of people believe they should be saving according to the Nationwide Building Society, though the key, as with most things, is to do something about it.
A spokesman from the Nationwide Building Society said that consumers appeared to be feeling the pressure being put on them by rising prices but also asked them to at least look at savings vehicles such as ISAs and Childrens Trust Funds. These are tax efficient and so can make a big difference.