Forced sales of homes to pay for care

The government’s reforms to long term care, elements of which are supposed to take effect in 2015, included provisions requiring local authorities to collect care home charges via a ‘deferred loan scheme’ from the sale of a property after the owner’s death.

Now a consultation document suggests that this will only apply if the individual has spent almost all their capital and has less than £23,250 (excluding the value of their home). The result, says the Sunday Times, is that a scheme claimed to solve a middle-class problem will now only benefit the poorest.