Formalisation of informal long-term care in South-East Europe: personal care agreements

This article analyses personal care agreements as a way of formalising informal long-term care. These agreements involve a transfer of property, generally the family home, from an older person to usually a younger family member in exchange for care. We describe their characteristics, as well as potential for abuse, in three South-East European countries – Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia – which share similar institutional backgrounds as members of the Former Yugoslavia. The case study indicates that personal care agreements in the observed countries are a response to the government’s modest role in long-term care. They are also driven by declining housing affordability and changes in family characteristics. Sometimes, they are just an instrument to exclude statutory heirs from inheritance and are often used as a means of fraud and manipulation of older citizens unable to care for themselves. The agreements should be further developed to fully protect both providers and beneficiaries of care. Their increasing importance signals the need to put long-term care at the centre of governments’ social policy in South-East Europe.