Many people find themselves going into Long Term Care quite suddenly – often they go into hospital and don’t go home. For others there is time to plan, but the planning doesn’t start until Long term care is inevitable – until then you hope to avoid it completely.

Some people ask about planning ahead – can they take out a ‘plan’ that will pay for Long term care in the event that they need it.

The answer used to be a cautious ‘Yes’ – there was just one policy available, with Partnership.

However, the last government set about reforming the Long Term Care sector (although didn’t) and the new government has plans to do so and this has meant that Partnership stood alone – a risky position. It’s unlikely any other insurer would enter the market knowing that all the rules are going to be changed.

Consequently, Partnership only sold 21 Long term care Insurance policies last year. They have decided to withdraw the product from the market.

However, Partnership have stated that although the product is withdrawn, they will keep it ‘on the shelf’ until next year – next year the Long Term Care Commission makes recommendations on how the Long term care world will look in the future – just in case there is an obvious place in the new market for a pre funded plan.