Another ‘betrayal’ as social care abandoned
ANGER mounted yesterday after it was revealed that a crucial meeting to fix social care was abandoned by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor.
The key summit was allegedly cancelled amid a row over the billions it would cost.
Campaigners and charities queued up to criticise Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary
Matt Hancock.
Mike Padgham, chair of the Independent Care Group, said: “Time and time again we have been promised reform, only for it to be delayed again and again.
“What is the problem this time? Do they need some help? If so, there are plenty of us who are more than happy to step in.
“We shouldn’t be surprised, the Government is guilty of betrayal after betrayal of social care reform.
Crippling
“The Prime Minister has promised to get social care done and the country is tired of waiting for him to deliver on that promise.”
Shadow health minister Liz Kendall said: “This dithering and delay from the Prime Minister on important talks on social care reform is entirely unsurprising.”
Latest figures show that thousands of desperate families are being lumbered with crippling average bills of £35,000 a year for care.
Jeremy Hunt, the ex-Health Secretary and the health select committee chairman, said: “This issue has been delayed for too long.
“My select committee said last year that this broken system needs a minimum of £7billion more added to its budget every year – an eye-watering sum.
“But that was not right away – rather a sum to build up to over the years ahead.
“Look underneath the numbers, which the Health Foundation helped us to calculate, and in the short term they are pretty manageable.
“For example, if the proposals for a cap on care costs – as recommended by the Dilnot review in 2011 – were introduced from
April 2023, the additional annual cost would be less than £1billion a year in the last year of the parliament.”
Costs do then go up significantly – but crucially not in the immediate postpandemic period when the UK is having to fund other pressures such as the NHS backlog, he added.
However, there are fears that RedWallTories could mutiny over a flat rate care costs cap, seen by some as a new poll tax.
Instead, they are urging the PM to introduce a cap based on a percentage of a person’s assets.
Figures compiled by business analysts LaingBuisson and published byWhich? show that in the decade since Sir Andrew Dilnot brought forward his idea for a cap, care costs have soared.
Fees for nursing homes – for people who need roundthe-clock medical care – are now £937 a week or £48,724 a year.
This is an increase of five per cent in just one year and 33 per cent in eight years.
The figures, which cover the amount paid both by local councils and those who fund their own care, mask the fact that selffunders pay even more than this.
LaingBuisson said self-funders are typically charged 30 per cent more than councils – meaning the average annual cost of a residential care home place will actually be much more than £35,000.
And the figures hide a desperate postcode lottery, with families in London and the South-east having to pay significantly more.
Mr Hancock said yesterday: “I talk to the Prime Minister every single day and we’re working very closely together on the delivery of this policy.
“The Prime Minister has committed to delivering this plan before the end of the year and we’re going to do that.”
But Gavin Terry, of Alzheimer’s Society, said: “The pandemic laid bare the dire state of social care and the Government must now act.
“We must ensure families being bankrupted by care fees and woefully inadequate care provision are a thing of the past.”