Charities call on Government to act on older care funding
December 30, 2011
Today some 60 national charities and social care provider agencies have published a letter in the Daily Telegraph calling on the Government to implement the Dilnot recommendations and call for all party talks on the future of the funding of longer term older care – however it looks unlikely that Government will respond for these urgent calls given the wider pressures facing the economy at the present time.
The Government response on the long term funding of care as proposed by Andrew Dilnot could not be occurring at a more critical time. The warning signals are already there that the Treasury Department will not loosen the purse strings to release the required £1.7 billion pounds per year to deliver a fair and equitable system for all us in our old age. Dilnot’s central argument that everyone should be liable for the first £35k on long term care is a good one thereby releasing middle England what became to be called the middle class tax with peoples capital assets being taken down to the last £21k.
Royal Commissions have come and gone as have reports such as the Wanless Report from the Kings Fund skillfully highlighting the time bomb of old age to come. 2012 provides stark evidence of our ageing population. On average around 150,000 people each year reach the land mark age of 65 well in 2012 750,000 do! The often quoted baby boomers have reached retirement age – luckily for the Government this is also the generation who never had it so good with a level of affluence, life long job security, and crucially a home owning middle class. This will ease some of the burden through private funding for care but the tidal wave of social care demand is now upon us in the week local authorities are being criticised for increasing their costs for care. A bumpy ride awaits.
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