‘Humanitarian crisis’ alert over Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer’s UK warns that financial strain on families will reach breaking point as number of carers soars

Alzheimer’s UK has said Britain is heading for a dementia “humanitarian crisis” as the charity estimates a million more people will be caring for someone with the disease by 2035. And Age UK has found the number of carers aged over 80 has risen 23 per cent to 900,000 since 2010.

BRITAIN is facing an Alzheimer’s “humanitarian crisis” because the care system is failing dementia sufferers and their families, a charity has warned.

James Hughes, the head of Alzheimer’s UK, made the stark prediction as figures compiled by the charity estimated a million more people will be caring for someone with dementia in England by 2035. He told the BBC: “This is a humanitarian crisis.”

Currently, around 1.8million carers in England are looking after someone with the disease, with family members having sacrificed some three billion hours for dementia care in the UK since 2017, the charity estimated.

However, with around two thirds of the cost of dementia care paid by sufferers and their families, it is feared the financial burden placed on an increasing portion of the population will soon reach crisis point.

It comes as separate analysis by Age UK found nearly a third of people aged 80 and over collectively provide 23 million hours of unpaid care a week.

The number of carers within the same age bracket has increased by 23 per cent to 970,000 since 2010, according to the charity.

The 1.2billion hours of unpaid care work provided by carers each year saves the health and care system £23 billion annually, it is estimated.

About 71 per cent of carers aged 80 and over have long-standing health problems, while 46 per cent have difficulty moving about at home or walking, Age UK said. Caroline Abrahams, the director of the charity, accused the Government

of “exploiting” the goodwill of elderly carers by “failing to sort out” the social care system.

She said: “The burden placed on these older carers’ shoulders is not only physical and emotional but financial too, because after years of government underfunding, so many older people who need care are having to pay for it themselves, wiping out the savings they’ve worked hard for all their lives and sometimes resulting in the family home having to be sold.

“The Prime Minister has promised to fix care and now he needs to follow through, with no more excuses or delays – surely it’s the least our brilliant older carers deserve.”

The Conservative Party pledged in its election manifesto to commit a further £1billion per year for social care and an additional £34billion in cash terms, including inflation, for the NHS to spend annually by 2024.

Age UK said 24 per cent of carers aged 80 and above are supporting someone else for more than 35 hours a week, while 13 per cent do so for more than 20 hours per week. Meanwhile, the number of carers aged 65 and over providing informal care for another person has increased from 2.7million to 3.3million in the past eight years, the charity said.

Age UK said the figures highlighted the “huge” contribution elderly carers made to society, adding that the majority were looking after a partner.

The charity’s analysis used data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study and the ONS mid-year population estimates. Anne Maguire, a full-time carer from Newcastle upon Tyne, told the BBC her husband, John, was diagnosed with dementia at the age of 57 in 2012.

She said: “He can get out of bed if I tell him he has to get up, but from that moment on, virtually everything has to be done for him. The loneliness is terrible – only part of him is here.”