Key announces lifetime mortgage tie-up with live-in care provider

Elder will offer its Live-in Care Funding Plan through Key as part of its focus on making live-in care available to more customers and advisers can access support through equity release referral service Key Partnerships.

Around 50,000 pensioners had to sell their homes last year to pay for residential care even though 97% of people say they don’t want to move into a care home in old age.

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 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.

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, added: “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.”