SCANDAL OF CARE BILLS DIVIDE

Costs for dementia care home residents who pay their own way to spiral to £78k a year – £21k MORE than councils will pay for sufferers with no savings

CARE home residents who pay their own bills will face charges £21,000 higher than those who are funded by the taxpayer.

Experts predict that dementia care costs will soar by 79 per cent in a decade.

This means those who have to pay will be billed an average of £78,000 a year by 2030.

An identical room paid for by the State will typically cost £57,000.

The £21,000 disparity will hit middle-class families because free care is given only to those with less than £23,250 in savings or housing wealth.

The Government promised two years ago to publish a plan to end the dementia betrayal. nothing has happened since – except that families have been forced to find £15billion to support relatives with the illness.

The Mail has been inundated with support since launching a campaign yesterday to end the scandal. Many families have had no option but to sell their homes to pay for care. With costs soaring

their plight will become even more critical. The Mail is calling on the next prime minister to make social care an urgent priority from the moment they enter Downing Street.

Martin Green of industry group Care England said the current rules were unacceptable and unfair. ‘People who are older are expected to pay for things which other people get free,’ he added.

‘This has been happening for a long time and the Government just refuses to act on it because the State benefits from it. It’s only going to get worse. The Government have been heaping the costs on the sector and refusing to pay.’

Labour MP Clive Betts, who chairs the Commons housing, communities and local government committee, said: ‘The real unfairness is that if you have cancer you will get treatment that will be paid for by the NHS, but if you get dementia and own a home or a bit of a private pension you will pay for care yourself. I absolutely back this campaign.’

The 79 per cent surge in care costs was calculated by the Alzheimer’s Society. Its policy director, Sally Copley, said: ‘The success of the next government will depend on addressing the social care crisis, not just on Brexit. Dementia care costs will keep rising until the next prime minister delivers urgent social care reform. The failure to address these pleas for help is appalling and the Government cannot continue to shelve this.’

Successive governments have failed over 22 years of various reviews, commissions and proposals to deal with the social care crisis.

The Mail is calling for the urgent formation of a crossparty group to resolve the funding crisis; a ‘dementia fund’ to help families pay the extra cost of supporting sufferers; an end to the ‘double subsidy’ that sees those deemed able to afford care subsidising the costs of those funded by the taxpayer; a minister to be appointed to attend Cabinet with the sole responsibility for providing a definitive plan of action; and policies to ensure no one is forced to sell their home to pay for care.

The campaign was last night backed by MPs of all parties, think-tanks, charities and academics. Tory leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt said: ‘The Daily Mail and its readers deserve huge credit for this campaign, shining a spotlight on one of our country’s biggest ongoing injustices.’

Niall Dickson of the NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals, said: ‘The state of social care is a national disgrace and the next prime minister needs to make it a top priority. That’s why we support the Daily Mail’s campaign – its readers have shown time and again that they can change political minds.

‘The new prime minister has a golden opportunity to create a legacy to be proud of by creating a long-term solution which will change lives for years to come.

‘To achieve that he should establish a strictly time limited cross-party commission to set out the way forward.’

David Taylor, emeritus professor of pharmaceutical and public health policy at University College London, said he strongly supported our campaign. He added: ‘People and families affected by dementia are being forced to spend their resources down to poverty levels in a nakedly unfair way. This is wrong and should stop.’

Barbara Keeley, the Labour Party’s spokesman for social care said: ‘It’s absolutely right that the next prime minister must prioritise the crisis in dementia care.

‘ I congratulate the Daily Mail on all they are doing to highlight this issue and I hope both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt are paying attention. Continued inaction on social care funding is taking a heavy toll on the finances of people with dementia and their families.’

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: ‘We want everyone to be able to access the care and support they need.

‘We will set out our plans to reform the system at the earliest opportunity to protect people from high and unpredictable costs.’

‘Heavy toll on their finances’

A NATIONAL disgrace. Nakedly unfair. A desperate state. Not fit for purpose.

Spoken with striking unanimity by politicians, health chiefs, charities and our readers, the words are short and brutal, but powerful. And, most pertinently, true.

Could anyone, hand on heart, describe Britain’s antiquated social care system in more kindly terms? Impossible.

It is deeply shameful that cowardly governments have let elderly dementia patients, deprived of their dignity by this merciless disease, be robbed of homes and life savings to pay extortionate care bills.

Rather than leaving something for their loved ones, those stricken by this terrible illness have their nest eggs snatched cruelly away by what is little more than a pernicious sky-high stealth tax.

Former pensions minister Baroness Altmann sums up the scandal perfectly: A ‘disgrace reminiscent of Victorian Britain.’

And this is why the Daily Mail’s End The Dementia Care Cost Betrayal campaign has generated such a remarkable response in its initial 24 hours. We are demanding our new prime minister grasps the nettle and rights this abominable wrong.

Last night, ex-health secretary Jeremy Hunt praised our crusade for ‘shining a spotlight on one of our country’s biggest injustices’. If he enters No10, he vows to ‘put this right, once and for all’.

Welcome words. After years of politicians’ broken promises, we can only hope someone grows a spine and confronts the challenge.

There really isn’t a moment to lose. Within a generation the number of dementia sufferers will hit two million. And as we report today, care costs are set to nearly double in the next decade – further burdening hard-pressed families who, in the past two years, have already spent a jaw-dropping £15billion.

Under this ruinously unfair system responsible pensioners who put money aside for a rainy day are punished with gigantic charges, while the indolent who spend every penny have their care paid for.

Social care has been pushed to the edge of the abyss by a perfect storm of an ageing population, diminishing council budgets, staff shortages and exorbitant fees.

Private equity fat cats who see care homes as cash cows have also creamed off obscene amounts – without as much as a thought for vulnerable residents.

With luck, the fantastic response to our campaign will prompt politicians to finally act. For every delay is a hammer blow to families who face seeing their loved ones’ hard-earned savings vanish into thin air.