Essential reading for anyone over 60. *Now updated with additional advice and information on self-isolation for the vulnerable and those over 60 during the coronavirus pandemic.*Staying put is a guide to planning for, arranging and funding life and care in your own home for yourself and partner or for a parent or other person you care for. Staying Put explains the benefits of new technology as well as examining practical adaptations, funding and staying in touch, safe and entertained.Features:* provides a guide to the preparations, services and technology that could enable you to stay in your home longer and avoid going into residential care.* examines residential care costs and explains how a modest investment can save many thousands of pounds in care home fees.* explains how the problems of safety, isolation and loneliness could be overcome by new technologySocial care for the elderly in the UK is in crisis. The system is under-funded and difficult to navigate.

This book provides a guide to independent living in old age; where to live, how to avoid or save on residential care fees and home to set about adapting your home for life in old age. The author explains how careful planning and a modest outlay can save up to £40,000 a year. It incorporates advice on grants, ways of funding care, adaptations to the home and how Smart Technologies and voice assistants can help.Based on the author's own experience of accessing the care system on behalf of his parents and his previous experience in using technology with disabled people, this guide is aimed at saving the reader time in navigating the complex social care system and pointing to new developments in technology that could enhance independence and reduce isolation.Whether you urgently need to arrange care for an older relative or want to plan ahead for a parent or yourself this guide will almost certainly save you time. The book explains the costs of residential care and how much you may have to pay, looks at the costs of funding care at home and what grants and help are available, provides advice on assessing the home and identifying the need for adaptations including obtaining grants for adaptations and looks at the role smart technologies and voice assistants like Amazon's Alexa and Google Assistant can play in enhancing independent living.The guide is presented on an easy to read format with links to sources of further information.