Retiring Abroad and Overseas Residential Homes

With 8,000 baby boomers turning 60 everyday, the health requirements for these former children of the revolution are huge and are stretching an already over burdened health service.

Add to that the fact that 300,000 Brits have homes overseas and around 200,000 British citizens leave these hallowed Isles every year, (one every three minutes), and you can see that it’s not just put upon relatives who are likely to be looking at finding an overseas nursing home for their loved ones!

Retiring abroad is becoming increasingly popular, and therefore, so are overseas residential homes – in this article we take a look at what’s on offer abroad in terms of full time care for the matured generation.

At this point in time there are no reciprocal agreements either within the European Economic Area or outside of it to cover overseas residential care for Brits living abroad, so it is a case of having to fund it privately, but then if you’ve got a house you’re going to be paying for your residential care in the UK anyway. 

Current NHS regulations state that anyone with assets over £21,500 will have to pay the full costs of their accommodation and personal care, up to the point when their assets have dwindled down to £13,000 when their local authority “may” pay for the cost of care.

With average residential care home costs in the UK being £15,000 per annum, it won’t take long to erode assets.  But, in the words of Corporal Jones, “don’t panic”, while you will have to use all your income (pensions, benefits etc.,) to fund your care, you can keep £20.45 per week spending money…bargain!

So if you’re living overseas and considering moving to a residential or nursing home abroad rather than returning to the UK, or you’re thinking of leaving the UK to enjoy residential care in the sun, what are the factors that you and your family should be considering?

The first thing to bear in mind when choosing a nursing home overseas is the local language.  You may find yourself extremely isolated if the majority of staff and residents don’t speak English.  With 50% of the escaping Brits leaving to live in Australia, New Zealand, France and Spain this problem doesn’t crop up in 2 of these countries, and if you’re planning to move to a residential care home in Torremolinos in Spain you’re more likely to be surrounded by other Brits than Spanish residents, so choice of football shirt may be the most important decision.

Care homes will obviously reflect the culture of the country they’re located in too, so you need to consider care delivery and food customs among other thing - if a full English breakfasts and fish and chips aren’t your bag it may be a reason not to choose Torremolinos for example!

Also think about how opting for residential care abroad is going to affect your family and yourself with regard to visits and actually spending time together.  If your grandkids live near London-Stansted airport and you’re considering moving to a residential home in Spain, you may find your grandchildren being loaded on to the plane every other weekend and you might get to see them more often!  However, if your family lives in the UK and you’re retiring abroad to live in Australia, it could just be that you seldom ever get to see your children and grandchildren, and that the cost benefits of opting for a residential home Down Under are outweighed by the lack of access to your family.

Finding out costs and provision of care before you go may save you an awfully nasty shock later on, but then again, at least the weather will be nice…alternatively you could just stay in the UK for residential care and just lose your house?!