FOUR DAYS TO ELECTION 2019: MR

Party will offer OAPs free care

JEREMY Corbyn will today unveil a £10billion-a-year package to provide free personal care for the elderly.

And he will cap the amount anyone has to spend on being looked after in later life at £30,000.

Labour’s planned National Care Service will provide free helpers to assist older people with daily tasks such as getting in and out of bed, bathing, washing and cooking.

It will also set new ethical guidelines for social care and ensure care providers train staff properly.

Mr Corbyn told the Sunday Mirror: “It’s much better if people can stay in their own homes, where they feel a sense of belonging.

“And it will reduce the need for people having to give up work to look after an older relative.”

The plan will mean that dementia sufferers will no longer lose out because of their higher care costs, and will reduce by 70,000 the number of people now facing costs of £100,000 or more. New figures show that 9,200 elderly people have had to appeal to local authorities for help since 2017 because they ran out of money.

And since last year they have been going to councils in desperation at the rate of 15 a day, a 38 per cent increase on 2017.

Shadow Minister for mental health and social care Barbara Keeley hit out at Boris Johnson for failing to deliver his own social care plan, saying: “His refusal to come forward with this plan is holding people who are struggling to cover the cost of care in contempt.”

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