POSITIVELY LiBERAL

A KEY question for everyone is how are we going to provide for our increasingly aging society?

This is particularly relevant to Pembrokeshire as many move here to retire and enjoy our beautiful scenery.

Paying for the care of elderly residents is the responsibility of the county council and, as our population ages, it has been a significant factor in recent Council Tax rises (along with looking after increasing numbers of vulnerable children and the cost of homelessness).

Paying for social care is an emotive issue, as many elderly residents have to pay the costs if their savings are above a threshold. In many cases, this has meant the sale of their homes.

Back in 2011, the UK Government commissioned a report on social care in England which concluded the current system was “widely regarded as inadequate, unfair and unsustainable.” The same could be said for Wales. The Dilnot Commission recommended a cap on the amount people should pay with the government making up the difference. .

However, successive governments have failed to take this forward due to the costs and emotions which it raises. In 2010, Prime Minister Gordon Brown produced proposals to fund social care from the estates of people who had passed away. However, following intense press criticism that this was a “death tax”, the proposals were dropped.

At the start of the 2017 General Election campaign, Prime Minister Theresa May proposed that people needing care should pay from their assets provided they were left with £100,000. Again, this was quickly dropped after it was branded a “dementia tax”.

Finally, Prime Minister Boris Johnson produced plans to pay for social care in 2021 through a health and social care levy of 1.25% on earned income. This was later abandoned due to the cost of living crisis.

On top of the thorny issue of who should pay and by how much, there is a big shortage of care workers with many coming to work here from overseas to fill in the gaps.

Social care for adults and children is now the biggest part of Pembrokeshire County Council’s budget having overtaken the schools budget. We need the UK Government to step in with a plan to properly fund social care and provide decent care for our elderly residents. This needs to be a big issue at the General

Election.