1-in-3 sell homes to fund care
ONE in three people with dementia have been forced to sell their home to pay for care, an exclusive poll reveals today.
Eight in ten people think politicians have failed to tackle the social care crisis, the survey also found.
And two-thirds believe the current system is unfair. It denies funding to anyone who owns a home or has a certain amount in savings – £28,000 in Scotland and £23,250 south of the Border.
Eight in ten people also said the NHS should fund dementia support. The Daily Mail is
campaigning for ministers to end the dementia care cost betrayal, with support flooding in from readers, charities, doctors and MPs.
As pressure mounted on politicians to deliver reform:
Experts last night called on Boris Johnson to match Tory leadership rival Jeremy Hunt’s promise to act;
Former home secretary David Blunkett, writing in today’s newspaper, admitted Labour failed to take action while in power;
Readers continued to write in with heartbreaking stories of the unfair tax on dementia.
Labour MP Clive Betts, chairman of the local government select committee, said: ‘This poll shows how unfair the system is. If you are an older person who has a heart attack, your medical care is paid for.
‘But if you get dementia, and own your own home and need care, you have to pay for that care yourself and many have to sell their house to do so. It is completely unacceptable.’
Sally Copley, of the Alzheimer’s Society, which has led support for the Mail’s campaign, said: ‘No one should be forced to sell a home they have worked their whole lives for just because they develop one health condition and not another.
‘This cruel lottery has to end. The next prime minister must release plans of how he will find a sustainable funding solution for the social care system in the long term.’
The poll of 1,013 adults, carried out by Survation on behalf of the Mail, lays bare the impact on families.
Some 26 per cent of respondents said a member of their family or a friend had been diagnosed with dementia. Of those, 52 per cent said they had to pay for their care.
An alarming 31 per cent had to sell their home to do so.
Some 27 per cent said they had spent more than £50,000 on care – and 6 per cent said the bill had exceeded £100,000.
Nearly seven in ten respondents said they would support cutting foreign aid to better fund social care.
A third backed a small increase in income tax or National Insurance.
The Mail is calling for the formation of a cross-party group to tackle the funding crisis.
In the meantime, the UK Government must set up a ‘dementia fund’ to help families pay the extra cost of supporting those affected. It must also end the ‘double subsidy’ which means those deemed able to afford to pay for care subsidise support costs of those funded by the state.
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: ‘It’s fantastic to see the Daily Mail taking up the cudgels on behalf of the hundreds of thousands who are losing out massively because of the Government’s failure to act on social care.
‘The system is not only incredibly stingy, it is grossly underfunded, too, so some people are struggling to get even their meagre rights recognised.’
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: ‘We are pleased to see this campaign tackling some of the barriers for patients with dementia.’
Labour MP Debbie Abrahams, co-chairman of the allparty parliamentary group on dementia, said: ‘The injustice of people battling to get care, on top of battling the effects of dementia, can’t go on.’
The Department of Health and Social Care said: ‘We will set out our plans to reform the system at the earliest opportunity.’
The Scottish Government said healthcare should be ‘free at the point of need’, adding: ‘We have invested £30million this year so that free personal care can be extended to everyone who is assessed as requiring it, regardless of income.
‘Our programme of national support for local reform of adult social care support will include exploring the cost of care and how it is paid for.’
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