INHERITANCE TAX AND LONG-TERM CARE

That this House notes that a third of people will develop dementia or other conditions requiring long-term care, which will mean that if they are home-owners of modest means, they are likely to have to sell their homes to meet the costs of long-term care and will thus have no inheritance left to tax; further notes that the proposal to increase the zero-rated band for inheritance tax to £700,000 for couples will cost £1 billion a year more than existing plans to raise the inheritance tax threshold; and therefore considers that this resource would have been more fairly applied to the introduction of free long-term care as recommended by the Royal Commission and more recently in a report by Sir Derek Wanless for the Rowntree Foundation, a measure that has been successfully introduced in Scotland with the result that informal care has increased enabling more people to remain in their homes rather than requiring residential care.