Competing cash concerns are preventing the number of gifts over-45s are making to their children, new research from Openwork has shown.
According to the investment network, more than one in four (28%) of those aged 45 and over are holding back on financially helping their children amid concern they will need to fund their parents’ later life care.
The figure rises to 42% among those aged 45 to 55, who have adult children and elderly parents to contend with.
The research also found that people are growing increasingly concerned about their own potential need for care, with 70% of respondents worried about how to pay for future care costs and 73% concerned about gifting money to children or parents in case their own funds run out.
The current rules stipulate that families in England must pay towards their care if they have assets of more than £23,250 with residential care costing as much as £55,000 a year if nursing care is needed while stay-at-home care can cost £14,000 a year.
Mike Morrow, wealth and platform director, Openwork, said: “Funding care in old age has been a major issue for years and one which Governments have grappled with but not been able to address which means families and individuals have to bear the brunt once NHS and local authority funding is taken into account.
“Many families are already having to cope with the need to look after their own parents while trying to help out their children who may need support with university and trying to buy a house. The issue highlights the value of financial advice in finding ways to balance the needs of different generations while helping clients to plan for their own retirement. Families understandably want to help each other but that support needs to be channelled.”
