Steve Webb
Steve Webb asks for feedback. I would ask anyone who is facing a long term future being looked after privately or knows someone facing this prospect to listen to this three minute video. Steve is taking seriously the financial consequences of nursing with a dignity that reminds us of his time as a Minister. It’s dignified but very human.
As for the content, I did not know any of this and I do know of close friends and family who may need to sell their house, take out lifetime mortgages or spend their savings, to have the dignity and humour Steve brings to the solutions he discusses.
He doesn’t turn his face from the difficulties. He reckons you will need an adviser and you will need skill to find the right solution to meet the peculiar circumstances of the elderly person (who may be you).
If I can add one source for help from accredited financial advice, try this NHS promoted link to SOLLA, the Society of Later Life Advisers. I have used it to help the elderly in my family and this link will take you to the right people
I would like to think that Steve and I are speaking on the same page!
We should not underrate the free service that Webb is offering here. I do read some of his “This is Money” columns and watch him when I can when he appears on the TV alongside Martin Lewis. But I think that this style of presentation brings something new to what is a very difficult subject.
There are a few journalists who bring these videos to life. But Steve seems to have found a way to talk straight to the camera on his desktop as if he was talking to us. Which is quite something! I am intrigued how he does it, because there is total fluency in his delivery and that is quite something to pull off at speed over three months.
I hope that readers do not take this as grovelling sycophancy on my part. Yes I do look up to Steve Webb as an example but I start with a long way to catch up. I’d like to learn how to do this and had an encouraging talk with Gavin Hill, a financial journalist who does digital interviews, I hope to hook up with him in Manchester in October. Robin Powell is another great source of help in this.
I think that in offering people an opportunity to engage with a difficult subject like life before death, we need to do what Steve is doing and harness new technology to tap into age-old skills of explanation.
This really is a little break-through Steve Webb, can I encourage more on such difficult but important subjects?
