Tories accused of attack on OAPs

THERESA MAY has insisted she is committed to protecting the dignity of Britain’s elderly as her plans to cut benefits for British pensioners and overhaul social care funding in England came under fire.

Senior Conservative candidate Dr Sarah Wollaston, who chaired the Commons health committee in the last parliament, said people would face a “miserable lottery” when it came to funding their future care.

Under the plans set out in the Conservative manifesto on Thursday, the party said it would not go ahead with the proposed £72,000 limit on care costs in England after which people would be entitled to state support.

Instead, people with assets of less than £100,000 – including the value of their home – will be protected from the costs of social care, although for the first time those receiving care in their home will have to pay as well as those in residential care.

However, Dr Wollaston said that by removing the cap, it would leave people unable to get insurance to cover their future care costs as it would be impossible to know what the final bill might be.

Writing in The Times, she said: “The dropping of the care cap sadly leaves social care uninsurable leaving in place the miserable lottery of care costs.”

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron also condemned the Tory proposals, warning that the so-called “dementia tax” would see families forced to sell their homes after a loved one died to meet the care bills they ran up in their lifetime.

“For the first time you’ll be asked to cash-in your home when it comes to paying for your care and your treatment,” he told the Press Association. “That’s absolutely appalling. It’s a specific attack on those who end up getting dementia. If you have dementia, the Tories are coming for you.”

Launching the Conservatives’ Scottish manifesto in Edinburgh, Mrs May said she was committed to facing up to the challenge of meeting the care needs of an ageing population while ensuring fairness for younger generations.

“As we look at the long term facing this challenge, we need to ensure that what we are doing is providing dignity for older people in their old age, but doing it in a way that is fair across the generations. That is what our long-term care plan will do,” she said.

However, she also came under attack from Labour over her proposals to partfund the plan by withdrawing the winter fuel allowance – worth up to £300 – from better-off pensioners across the country.

It is expected the Welsh Government will be able to decide how it wants to use its share of the cash raised.

At a campaign press conference in London, Labour claimed five out of six pensioners would lose the allowance under the Tories’ proposals for meanstesting. Labour also said that if the less generous pensions “double lock” – with which the Tories intended to replace the “triple lock” – had been in place for the past seven years, state pensioners would now be £330 worse off.

Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey said that in 2015 growth had been so weak the basic state pension would have been uprated by just £1.36 under the double lock formula.

Speaking at a Labour campaign news conference in London, she said plans set out in the Conservative election manifesto for the pension age to reflect life expectancy meant that 34 million people would have to work longer if the Tories were returned to power on June 8.

“They have laid bare the threat they pose to pensioner security and living standards and shown beyond a doubt that they are turning their backs on older people and future generations of pensioners,” she said. “Those people who worked hard, they did everything that was asked of them, they put their blood, sweat and tears into making Britain great. Today they must feel like they have been kicked in the teeth.”

Under the triple lock, introduced by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in 2011, pensions are uprated by the rate of earnings, prices or 2.5%, whichever is higher. Under the double lock, the 2.5% minimum guarantee is dropped.

“That’s not good enough to guarantee the real value of pensioners’ incomes and frankly older people, who have worked hard all their lives, deserve a lot better than this. They deserve respect,” Ms Long-Bailey said.