‘Unfair’ elderly care lottery needs reform, admits Hunt

JEREMY HUNT pledged to reform the “unfair” system of care for the elderly which sees those with dementia “wiped out” financially.

The Health Secretary said social care in England was currently “random”, with the financial burden on families differing drastically, depending on the nature of their loved-one’s illness.

Speaking to the Health Committee for the first time since having social care added to his title in the Cabinet reshuffle, Mr Hunt promised to learn from southern European countries like Spain and Italy, which pay less for elderly care but have fewer problems.

He also told MPS that Theresa May’s decision to enhance his role earlier this month showed the Prime Minister “cares very deeply” about the issue.

Mr Hunt will take charge of the social care green paper setting out plans to improve conditions for older people.

“I do think that the risk-pooling part of the social care system doesn’t work very well at the moment,” he told the committee. “It’s very random – if you get dementia, for example, you can end up losing absolutely everything because there is a reasonably high chance you will end up in a care home, and then you can end up being cleaned out, which wouldn’t happen if you had a different type of illness ... There is an unfairness in the way the system has evolved over the years.”

Dementia is now the biggest killer in Britain, overtaking heart disease for the first time. Some 70,366 people died from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia last year, compared to 66,076 from heart disease.