1 IN 3 DEMENTIA VICTIMS FORCED TO SELL HOMES

Shock Mail poll reveals the true toll of care costs Boris vows to end scandal when he’s PM

ONE in three people with dementia have been forced to sell their home to pay for care, an exclusive poll reveals today. eight in ten people think politicians have failed to tackle the social care crisis, the survey found, and two-thirds believe the current system – which denies funding to anyone who owns a home or has

£23,250 in savings – is unfair. eight in ten also said the NhS should fund dementia support.

the Daily Mail is campaigning for ministers to end the dementia care cost betrayal, with support flooding in from readers, charities, doctors and MPs.

As pressure mounted on politicians to deliver reform:

In an interview last night, Boris Johnson said no one should have to sell their home to pay for dementia care;

Former home secretary David Blunkett, writing in today’s newspaper, admitted Labour failed to take action while in power;

readers continued to write in with heartbreaking stories of the unfair tax on dementia.

Labour MP Clive Betts, chairman of the local government select committee, said: ‘this poll shows how unfair the whole system is.

‘If you are an older person who has a

heart attack, your medical care is paid for.

‘But if you get dementia, and own your own home and need care, you have to pay for that care yourself and many have to sell their house to do so. It is completely unacceptable and it needs to be brought to an end.’

Sally Copley, of the Alzheimer’s Society, which has led support for the Mail’s campaign, said: ‘No-one should be forced to sell a home they have worked their whole lives for just because they develop one health condition and not another. This cruel lottery has to end.

‘The next prime minister must release plans of how he will find a sustainable funding solution for the social care system in the long term, which doesn’t rely on the houses of people with dementia to pay for it.’

The poll of 1,013 adults, carried out by Survation on behalf of the Mail, lays bare the impact on families.

Some 26 per cent of respondents said a member of their family or a friend had been diagnosed with dementia. Of those, 52 per cent said they had to pay for their care. And an alarming 31 per cent had to sell their home to do so.

Some 27 per cent said they had spent more than £50,000 on care and 6 per cent said the bill had exceeded an astonishing £100,000. Nearly seven in ten of respondents said they would support cutting foreign aid to better fund social care. A third said they would back a small increase in income tax or national insurance.

The Mail is calling for the urgent formation of a cross-party group to tackle the funding crisis – tasked with dealing with the issue once and for all.

In the meantime, the Government must set up a ‘dementia fund’ to help families pay the extra cost of supporting those affected. And it must end the ‘double subsidy’ which sees those deemed able to afford to pay for care subsidising the costs of support for those funded by the state.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: ‘It’s fantastic to see the Daily Mail taking up the cudgels on behalf of the hundreds of thousands who are losing out massively because of the Government’s failure to act on social care. The current system is not only incredibly stingy, it is grossly underfunded too, so some people are struggling to get even their meagre rights recognised and their needs met.

‘Our new prime minister should firstly put out the fire which threatens social care today, and then get good people around him to help build something better, fairer and more fire-proof.’

Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: ‘We are pleased to see this campaign directly tackling some of the barriers for patients with dementia. We hope it goes some way to finally addressing what has long been an unacceptable situation in England.’

Labour MP Debbie Abrahams, co-chairman of the allparty parliamentary group on dementia, said: ‘People with dementia are faced with higher costs for their care, costing an average 15 per cent more than if they had standard social care. Social care is in crisis and it leaves people with dementia and their families struggling within a broken and unfair system.

‘The injustice of people battling to get care, on top of battling the devastating effects of dementia can’t go on.’ The Department of Health and Social Care said: ‘People who need social care should not have to pay more than they can reasonably afford and we introduced reforms aimed at preventing people being forced to sell their homes to pay for their own care in their lifetime.

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

OUR poll today reveals deep disenchantment with the way politicians have ducked responsibility for the dementia crisis.

Eighty per cent say they have failed to tackle this huge problem, a similar proportion believe the NHS should fund dementia care, and almost as many say that care should be paid for from our ballooning foreign aid budget.

The snapshot also shows more than half of sufferers had to fund their own care and a third had to sell their homes.

Our End the Dementia Care Cost Betrayal campaign has shone a light on this sometimes hidden national disgrace and we have been inundated with support.

There must be no more prevarication from those in power. The time to act is now. THE speed with which Baroness Hayter was sacked as a shadow minister after accusing Jeremy Corbyn of having a Hitler- style ‘bunker mentality’, was in stark contrast to Labour’s disgraceful foot- dragging over expelling anti-Semites. So it’s acceptable in today’s Labour party to hate Jews. But criticise the leader and his commissars for lack of action on anti-Semitism and you’re out.