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Financial planning for social care in later life: the ‘shadow’ of fourth age dependency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2012

DEBORA PRICE ,
DINAH BISDEE ,
TOM DALY ,
LYNNE LIVSEY  and
PAUL HIGGS
DEBORA PRICE*
Affiliation:
Institute of Gerontology, King's College London, UK.
DINAH BISDEE
Affiliation:
Institute of Gerontology, King's College London, UK.
TOM DALY
Affiliation:
Institute of Gerontology, King's College London, UK.
LYNNE LIVSEY
Affiliation:
Institute of Gerontology, King's College London, UK.
PAUL HIGGS
Affiliation:
Institute of Gerontology, King's College London, UK. University College London, UK.
*
Address for correspondence: Debora Price, Institute of Gerontology, King's College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, UK. E-mail: debora.price@kcl.ac.uk
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Abstract

As policy makers in the United Kingdom and many other countries grapple with financing the needs of an ageing population, financial planning for social care in later life is high on political agendas. We draw on qualitative research with older couples in the United Kingdom about their intimate money practices to analyse the day-to-day meanings attributed to money, saving and consumption in the context of financial planning for later life and death. We find that expenditure on funerals and home adaptations is discussed, negotiated and planned, as is ‘downsizing’ to release capital from the home for financing day-to-day expenses and leisure expenses. These outcomes are within easy contemplation and indeed money practice of older couples. In contrast, end-of-life planning for domiciliary or residential care was virtually non-existent across all socio-economic groups, and couples employed a range of techniques to avoid making these discussions ‘real’. Costs (while well known) are seen as astronomical, details are scarce, intensive domiciliary care is never discussed, and death is seen as preferable to residential care. We theorise antipathy to care planning as a product of social and psychological construction of the ‘fourth age’ as a period of abjection, and therefore ‘wasted’ expenditure. Exhortations by policy makers for individuals to consider care costs will be ineffective without recognition of the cultural transformation of later life.

Keywords

social careend-of-lifefourth agecouplesfinancial planningcare costs
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , March 2014 , pp. 388 - 410
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

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