Next PM must back funds for elderly care, says think tank

THE next prime minister should lift constraints on public spending to fund care for the elderly, according to a report.

A paper backed by Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has been helping to organise Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign, calls for the Government to cover long-term social care, with a relatively modest “co-payment” from those who can afford it.

Unlike NHS services, funded by taxes and free at the point of use, anyone with assets over £23,250 benefiting from home help or residential care must fund the services themselves.

The report, by the Policy Exchange think tank, suggests financing the new scheme centrally by slowing down the Conservatives’ efforts to reduce debt.

It highlights the increasing burden on the health service of the country’s ageing population and warns that the current social care system is, in contrast to the NHS, “a labyrinthine process that few people fully understand”. The report forms part of a Policy Exchange project launched last week.

It features a poll showing that voters believe tackling the social care crisis should be the next prime minister’s second biggest domestic priority after the NHS.

The Deltapoll survey found that two in three voters believe social care should be “free at the point of delivery”, with the costs funded through “general taxation”.

Policy Exchange’s report proposes “completing the welfare state” by funding complex long-term social care, with a “limited co-payment” regime of around £5,000 for patients earning more than approximately £27,000.

It claims that funding social care like the NHS would cost an additional £11billion, but that it is “entirely within the means of a rich society like the UK” to cover the cost through state funds.

Mr Rees-Mogg said: “[The] proposal is persuasive and I hope the candidates for the Conservative leadership will actively consider it. This is something we can afford as a nation.”