SEND TO A FRIEND
PRINTCare Green Paper July 09
Dear Sir,We very much welcome the government’s launch of a consultation on the future of social care (Shaping the Future of Care Together), but are conscious that this is both overdue and of little consolation to many thousands of older people in the UK now, who are struggling to find the funds to cover the cost of increased longevity.
Poverty in old age is nothing new; state pensions have for a long time failed to keep pace with the cost of basic essentials and utilities. Although many older people have made private pension provision, increased longevity has substantially lowered annuity rates and has forced many to move from care home to care home, in an attempt to seek out lower fees. Having worked all of their lives, their retirement years are now plagued with anxiety and stress over how they will pay for the care that they need.
In innumerable incidences, grant-giving charities such as Elizabeth Finn Care hear stories of how once hard-working men and women, men and women who have paid tax and National Insurance their whole lives, have been forced to sell their homes to pay for care in their old age. These people are turning to charities for help and, once again, the Third Sector is shouldering the burden of cost.
Under the current means-tested system, those with a home or savings of more than £23,000 have to pay for their own care. Whilst the current situation, therefore, provides for the very poorest and those with severe disabilities, many people who were fortunate enough to have been on middle incomes during their working lives are punished in retirement for the crime of relative prudence.
There is no golden bullet; no quick fix solution. Years of ignoring the elephant in the corner has led to a situation which, by the government’s own admission, will cost the State about the same as the present £14.7 billion annual budget to fix. The green paper is a step in the right direction but, whilst the future is important, let us not forget those older people now whose daily lives are plagued with anxiety over how they will bear the cost of living longer.
Bryan Clover
Director, Elizabeth Finn Care