WHO WILL ACT ON DEMENTIA DISGRACE?

If the acid test of a civilised society is the way it treats its elderly and vulnerable, then the unsavoury truth is that Britain is a profoundly uncivilised place.

our supposedly enlightened nation should feel immense shame that thousands of frail pensioners robbed of their dignity by dementia are left facing exorbitant social care bills.

To pay them, many caged by this cruel disease are forced to sell homes or raid savings they have toiled for all their lives – unjustly wiping out nest eggs intended for their loved ones.

Indeed, over the past two years families have forked out an eyewatering £ 15 billion looking after relatives who can no longer perform the most basic daily functions.

only the flint-hearted could fail to be affected today by Daily Mail readers’ harrowing stories of mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers stricken by this terrible illness – and the bureaucratic hoops people must jump through to receive even meagre assistance.

Take sharon Muranyi. Her father fred fought bravely in the second World War and later served in the police. He worked hard to buy a picturesque thatched cottage for his family. Yet when he suffered dementia, the care bills were so extortionate his daughter had to sell the adored home.

Pinning the blame squarely on our political leaders, she says: ‘He spent his life in public service. But when he needed it most, he was deserted.’

That the state so casually consigns thousands to the scrapheap if their mental health diminishes is disgraceful. And the injustice doesn’t end there.

The grossly unfair system means that someone diagnosed with a medical condition, for instance cancer, has their bills met by the NHs, while someone with dementia – which requires social care – faces financial ruin.

To add insult to injury, pensioners who are thrifty and careful, putting money aside for a rainy day, are punished with gargantuan fees, while the feckless without savings get everything free. This is nothing short of a monstrous tax on the ill. could even a sadist have dreamed up anything so iniquitous?

To their eternal shame, politicians of all hues have watched the creaking care system get worse. spineless as jellyfish, they have repeatedly booted the problem into the long grass.

In his first conference speech as prime minister, Tony Blair solemnly promised to crack the crisis. Two decades on, we are – absurdly – no nearer an answer. Instead of action, we’ve had only lamentable indecision. Yes, on rare occasions ministers have suggested funding solutions – lifetime caps, new insurance regimes or Theresa May’s doomed ‘dementia tax’. But they’ve rapidly resorted instead to sticking plasters.

The damning truth is our leaders have lacked political courage. Time and again, they have shirked the challenge as politically risky and ferociously expensive.

Yet this hasn’t stopped successive governments squandering billions on foreign aid.

That uK taxpayers funded schemes to improve dementia care elsewhere in the world is an insult to every elderly Briton who doesn’t get the help they deserve. While that allows virtuesignalling ministers to flaunt their humanitarian credentials, it infuriates a rightly appalled public.

The situation is serious. More than 850,000 people in Britain have dementia. Within a generation, that number will reach 2 million. It costs the country a staggering £26 billion a year.

A perfect storm of an ageing population, shrinking council budgets and unaffordable fees means social care is at breaking point.

After years of obfuscation, this must be a wake-up call. so today the Mail launches a campaign demanding our new prime minister acts to stop the scandalous injustice and end the dementia care bills betrayal.

first, whoever wins the keys to Downing street must urgently announce a plan to fix the crisis. The can has been kicked down the road for far too long. It cannot be kicked an inch further.

Next, he must set up a cross-party group on social care, rising above tumultuous tribal party politics to develop a genuine long-term strategy.

Then, he must investigate other ways to fund care – including via the pensions system, tax breaks and insurance schemes.

And finally, he must create a ‘dementia fund’ to help families pay the extra costs of looking after sufferers – potentially by dipping into the extra £20 billion a year bagged by the NHs.

In a poll today, nearly four in five MPs believe social care is underfunded and needs radical reform to make it viable for the 21st century. A Government Green Paper has gathered dust for two years. Ministers

must bite the bullet. The Mail acknowledges the greatest social problem of our age presents enormous challenges. But we have to rise to them.

No longer can we close our eyes to a devastating illness that may strike any one of us or someone we love.