spider9

"Exactly where do you suggest the tax shortage, by such a measure, would be made up?"

It would be recouped later as it was spent. £100k spend over a decade provides various taxes and employment by the retail trade that takes your spending money.

Yes, I know that that's a Utopian notion that can't be put in place at the drop of a hat, but that's the direction that we should be moving in. Where's the sense in taxing Peter's pension funds today, to pay Paul's pension credit tomorrow?

Like I said, we need to work towards it.

All governments throughout the 20th century have wanted their jam today. It's time they did what they keep telling us to do and saved prudently for the future.

If I was leaving school again in 1972, armed with what I know now, I would simply just buy a gold sovereign as and when I had the money for one and sit on them until retirement, when I would go and sell as and when needed for living expenses.

But without foresight, it is however a safe bet to buy gold as a school leaver compared to stocks. It has it's ups and downs, but always trends up. And after 50 years of working, each sovereign that was about a fiver then if my memory is right now selling for around £300 is a very good investment.

Scale that up to a 3 bed property (the other safe investment) that was about £5000 in the early '70s now going for about £150,000 (S Yorks price comparison) that equates to half the current gold value at £300,000.

There is considerable emotion attached to selling ones home to finance care costs, but what is the point in maintaining a empty home while living out your remaining years in a nursing home, especially as we have a housing shortage?

Many people have benefited from rises in property prices and this forms a substantial percentage of their wealth. No tax has been paid on this capital gain. It hardly seem fair that the general taxpayer should finance the entire nursing home costs while relatives receive a large inheritance.

The object of the Governments proposal is to set a ceiling on costs so that the Insurance industry can produce a suitable policy that will cover care home costs at affordable rates. Perhaps if the relatives fancy the house, they can pay the premiums on the insurance policy.