BRITAIN’S SHAMEFUL CARE HOME TIME BOMB
167,000 trapped in debt as costs soar 1,200 taken to court for failing to pay bills
MORE than 160,000 of Britain’s pensioners and disabled people are “trapped” in debt because they cannot afford to pay bills.
A damning investigation reveals they are racking up financial problems after being forced to pay thousands of pounds for care, either in their homes or in residential accommodation.
But Freedom of Information requests to every local authority in Britain with responsibility for social care showed that nearly 1,200 people have been taken to court by town halls for social care debts.
At least 166,835 are in arrears on their
social care payments, with more than 78,000 having debt management procedures started against them for nonpayment of charges, the study showed.
And the true figure is likely to be higher as some authorities did not respond.
It is the latest scandal to hit Britain’s beleaguered care system, which experts say is underfunded by £2billion
Growing numbers of pensioners have been forced to pay soaring care home bills, while owners have been charging for rooms even after the residents died.
Elderly patients have been left languishing in expensive hospital beds long after they are fit to leave, because the NHS and local authorities do not put care plans in place quickly enough.
A soaring number of care home closures – more than 12 a month last year – has added to the problem. Sharon Wilde of the GMB union, which submitted the information requests, said: “These stark figures show the UK’s social care ticking time bomb has now blown a gaping hole in families’ finances.
“The fact more than 1,000 people have been taken to court because they’re unable to pay for their own care or that of their loved ones shows the system just isn’t working.
“We need a clear, coherent strategy for funding social care now and in the future.”
Jan Shortt, general secretary of the National Pensioners Convention, said: “This is graphic proof the social care system is letting down some of our most vulnerable older people and their families.
“The costs are simply too great to be left to individuals and the Government’s Green Paper in the summer needs to offer a real solution to sharing the risk and pooling the cost of future care across society as a whole.”
Even the 6.5 million people looking after loved ones at home are struggling.
New data by the Labour Party shows nearly two-thirds of councils have been charging for carers’ respite breaks. Age UK’s charity director Caroline Abrahams said: “Older people are increasingly at the centre of a perfect storm of cuts to social care.”
The Daily Express crusade Respect for the Elderly has called for a Minister for Older People to oversee the introduction of policies to help the elderly generation.
Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of Alzheimer’s Society, said: “As this investigation powerfully shows, the social care system is in dire straits.”
Adult social care services are facing an annual funding gap that will soar past £2billion by 2020, experts have warned.
A Local Government Association spokesman said: “These figures illustrate yet another consequence of a system straining under real financial pressure.”