Care Fears

An interesting poll published today by Carers UK highlights the widespread financial fear families have about caring for relatives – see news on carersuk.org. Really high numbers of people – about 7 in 10 of UK adults indicate they would struggle to pay household bills if they had to give up work to care for a family member. David Borrowman of Solicitors for Older People Scotland comments “These figures don’t surprise us at all.  There is real fear out there.  And remember this poll deals with caring for relatives at home.  I‘d be prepared  to bet the figures could have been even higher if the sample had been polled about residential care costs.  It is particularly interesting from the survey to note that the fear of this issue affects younger adults as well as older people who may need the care.  I am afraid this is set to become a dominating issue for many families as we all live longer. This is not an easy topic for politicians in this time of austerity but you would like to think it possible to come some agreed approach as a society which reduced this widespread worry for families”.