Elder provides advice on all aspects of live-in care including support on social services funding.
Key Retirement has linked up with live-in care provider Elder to expand the range of options for advisers supporting retired clients.
Elder, which provides advice on all aspects of live-in care including support on social services funding, is offering the Live-in Care Funding Plan through Key as part of its focus on making live-in care available to more customers.
Currently around 873,500 people receive home care with local authorities and Health and Social Care Trusts providing around £3.83bn of the total £4.62bn spent a year on domiciliary care in the UK.
But that still leaves pensioners needing home care to find more than £700m a year to afford care in the home.
Dean Mirfin, chief product officer at Key Retirement, said: “For far too long live-in care has been for the wealthy even though millions of pensioners with equity tied up in their homes could fund live-in care through equity release.
“We are pleased to be working with Elder to provide expert advice to enable older homeowners to receive valuable live-in-care at home.”
Pete Dowds, co-founder of Elder, said: “Most of us dread the idea of going to a care home and, even worse, the idea of paying as much as £2,000 a week for the privilege.
“We want live-in care, a service that was historically exclusive, to be available to all. It can usually be funded more simply than people realise and we believe the market for utilising home equity in this way is huge.”
Elder estimates live-in care costs around £770 a week while pensioners funding residential care privately can pay as much as £2,000 a week. The median admission period to death for a residential care home customer is 15 months.
The likelihood that pensioners will need some form of care is high – government data shows the average 65-year old can expect to live for 18-and-a-half years but will only be in good health for 10.3 years.
Key’s link with Elder will mean lifetime mortgages will be offered as part of the range of options to enable retired homeowners to remain in their house and retain their independence. Advisers can access support through equity release referral service Key Partnerships.
