Abject failure over the challenge of old age

IN HIS first conference speech as Prime Minister, Tony Blair made a solemn pledge to tackle the looming crisis of elderly care.

‘I will not rest until the old are cherished and valued to the end of their days,’ he told his adoring party faithful.

How hollow those words ring. Twenty-two years, a Royal Commission, endless reviews, and nine Health Secretaries later, we are still no further on. Instead of action, we have had only havering and obfuscation.

Indeed the only real difference between then and now, is that this is no longer a looming crisis. It is very definitely upon us.

Our rapidly ageing population combined with local authority cuts and a rash of residential home closures have brought the care system to the edge of collapse.

Elderly patients are having to be parked in hospital beds after treatment – sucking precious resources out of the NHS – because there’s nowhere else for them to go.

Local authorities are ramping up business rates to meet soaring costs, compounding the problems of high street retailers.

And better-off pensioners are having to empty their bank accounts and sell their homes to pay for care that the less thrifty receive free. So ex-Tory minister Damian Green is to be complimented for reopening the debate – even though his suggested remedies fall short of offering a solution.

Taxing winter fuel allowance, encouraging the affluent to release housing equity and a modest increase in National Insurance payments for the over-50s may help plug the immediate funding gap.

But unless someone has the courage to implement a comprehensive financial plan – probably based on some form of public or private insurance scheme – we will soon be back in crisis.

This is an issue that transcends party politics. Yet both Labour and the Tories have failed to come together to solve it.

Yesterday, Downing Street postponed any decision until after Brexit (whenever that may be!). This is simply not good enough.

Solving the elderly care crisis is perhaps the greatest social challenge of our age. The time for dithering is over.