Stealth tax, mortgages, BHS and energy

Middle-class families are paying a ‘stealth tax’ of £10,000 a year for places in care homes for the elderly, according to The Times. The extra charge is being used to subsidise residents who cannot pay themselves and have to rely on council funding, the first detailed analysis of fees has found. There are about 400,000 elderly people living in care homes and almost half pay for themselves, either by running down their savings or selling the family home. People must ‘self- fund’ if they have assets totalling more than £23,000. The report by the charity Age UK found that this group pay average weekly bills of between £603 and £867, depending on the area, although in the south east fees often run to more than £1,000 a week. Mortgage lending

The Council of Mortgage Lenders estimates that gross mortgage lending reached £20.5 billion in September. This is 7 per cent lower than August’s lending total of £22.1