As many of you know, Later Living Helpline has been tirelessly campaigning for several years for a cap on care fees and for care to be covered by the NHS.
Throughout this time, we have raised thousands of petition signatures and worked hard to help people understand their options when it comes to protecting their homes from being included in a financial assessment for care.
Over the last three years alone, we have connected more than 3,000 people with specialist estate planners, enabling them to receive free professional advice about their options.
For many families, this information is invaluable. Depending on their circumstances and the arrangements available, it may help them protect their home from being taken into account when determining how much they must contribute towards their care.
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Request Your Free Estate Planning ReviewBehind the scenes, we have a team of volunteers answering hundreds of enquiries every single day. We work with several specialist estate planning agencies who generously donate their time to support our cause and provide these appointments completely free of charge.
Unfortunately, we are now facing a serious problem.
The reality of missed appointments
Estate planners have busy periods throughout the year, and sometimes they need to temporarily reduce the number of free appointments they can offer us.
However, the biggest issue we are facing is the number of people who book an appointment and then simply fail to attend.
Last week, for example:
- 62 appointments were booked.
- Only 19 people attended.
- 43 appointments were wasted.
That means just 31% of the people who booked actually turned up.
Imagine the impact this has on the professionals giving up their valuable time for free.
Some people simply cannot be bothered to attend on the day. Others fail to answer the phone, ignore calls from the estate planners, or cancel without consideration. Sadly, we have even received reports of people being rude to the very professionals who are generously trying to help them.
These are not paid appointments. These specialists are donating their time to help people understand how they may be able to protect their homes from care fees.
A typical appointment with a high-street solicitor or specialist estate planner could cost around £280 per hour, which is why 70,000 people lose their homes every year to care fees.
We are incredibly fortunate to be able to offer this service free of charge.
We have now lost a major provider of free appointments
As a direct result of the continued failure of people to attend their appointments, the main estate planning agency that has been generously supporting our campaign has now stopped providing these free appointments.
This is a devastating blow.
We have worked tirelessly to make this information accessible to as many people as possible, and we know there are thousands of people who genuinely need and value this advice.
We are not restricted by the number of appointments we can offer in principle. The problem is that we must ensure the professionals donating their time are not having their diaries filled with appointments that people simply do not attend.
A refundable deposit will be introduced from 1 December
Unfortunately, we now expect that we will have to introduce a refundable deposit for all free estate planning appointments from 1 December 2026.
The deposit will:
- Be paid directly to the estate planning provider.
- Be refunded once you attend your appointment.
- Help ensure that appointments are booked by people who genuinely intend to attend.
The appointment itself will remain free.
We fully appreciate that this change may prevent some genuine and trustworthy people from accessing the information they need. That is something we are deeply unhappy about.
However, due to the actions of the majority who fail to attend, we believe this is the only realistic way to ensure we can continue offering these crucial appointments.
Please help us keep this service available
We can continue to offer appointments without a deposit until the refundable payment system is implemented, which we expect to be around 1 December.
In the meantime, we ask just one thing:
Please only book an appointment if you genuinely want to understand your options for protecting your home from care fees and are willing to attend.
If you can no longer make your appointment, please let us know in advance. Your appointment could be given to another person who desperately needs this information.
These estate planners are not here to waste your time. They are here to help you understand your options and potentially protect one of the most valuable assets you and your family own.
We are sorry that things have reached this point. We never wanted to introduce a deposit, and we know it will create an additional barrier for some people.
But we also have a responsibility to the professionals who have supported us, to our volunteers, and to the thousands of people who genuinely need this service.
Please value the free advice being offered. It may be one of the most important appointments you ever make.
Thank you for your continued support of Later Living Helpline and our campaign for fairer care funding.
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