Leads: Prof Robin Miller (Social Care), Dr Laura Kudrna (Methodology)

The project team are working with the Money and Pensions Service throughout the project.

Dates: August 2019 - August 2021

Background:

Many people do not save sufficiently for their social care needs in older age. In the UK, social care assistance is means-tested, although many people believe that it is free at the point of use (as for health care). This project investigates how to improve financial planning for social care needs in older age. In November 2020 we published a peer-reviewed literature overview on behavioural influences on the uptake of social care insurance [Vlaev, et al. 2020. DOI:10.3389/fpubh.2020.564471Link opens in a new window]. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is reviewing this evidence and its alignment with their social care strategy.

Policy and Public Partners:

Money and Pensions Service.

Co-Funding Partners:

Money and Pensions Service.

Aims and Objectives:

We will apply insights from the DHSC review to test how the questions that financial advisors ask people about social care influence whether they save for their future care needs. By addressing social care planning, fewer decisions will have to be made in an emergency, and transitions to assisted living or care settings may be better informed.

Methods:

Online and field experiments. We are working with the Money and Pensions ServiceLink opens in a new window to design questions that will be piloted in online surveys and, ideally, eventually tested within a call centre environment.

Main results:

Pending.

Conclusions:

Pending.

Implications for Implementation:

Funding care in later life is one of the greatest challenges in countries with an ageing population and high dependency ratio. Incentivising saving will reduce the pull on the public purse, and these results will feed in to national policy by showing how feasible it is to increase personal savings.