ELDERLY people requiring longterm residential care would have to take out private insurance or agree to the state recouping costs from their property after death under radical new government proposals.

The Sunday Tribune has learned that a government review group will recommend that the state should look at establishing its own "equity release" schemes ? similar to the controversial operations run by some banks ? to allow elderly people to use property and other assets to finance residential accommodation. The document will propose that the state should force the elderly to take out insurance or "unlock" money from their assets by axing all state payment for long-term care after three months.

At present, some 20,000 people are in long-term care, either in public beds, state-subvented private beds, or in places paid for entirely by themselves.

The group's report will argue that the government should place the emphasis on keeping elderly people in the community and proposes a new subvention scheme for vulnerable elderly people living at home. It also proposes that access to residential care should be curtailed by more stringent dependency assessments.

"The desire here is to protect the assets of the older person to facilitate their return to the community. . . while, at the same time, penalising unhelpful or uncaring relatives and providing some revenue to the exchequer for providing very long-term care for older people.

"Once need for long-term care is established, access to public funding in either public long-stay institutions or private nursing homes should be based on a common assessment of means and assets." It argues that nursing home subventions provided by health boards should be based on actual cost of care and increased to a maximum of around 250 per week. It also proposes that elderly people and their families should have to cofund care costs in some cases.

"A possibility would be to place a limit of three months on public responsibility for all longstay care costs in both public facilities and in subvented private long-stay care and require private insurance for stays longer than this. Alternatively, after three months any expenditure by the state in relation to the care of older people in either public or private residential facilities might be partly recouped by means of a legislatively based 'reverse deductible' on assets posthumously collected."