"More populism"
Ridiculous statement
Erm no. Do you understand how the current social care system works? Every old person is already entitled to a care assessment to determine what level of support they need, Social services might get a bad press but actually they are on the whole good at linking old people to a whole network of professional services that can make old people lives easier and give them dignity, not just meals and caters but things like the Occupational Therapists who will fit equipment like toilet risers and rails . The whole system is geared to helping people to keep their independence if they want it rather than move them to a home, not least because homes are expensive, very expensive. The issue is not that people cannot stay in their homes and live independent lives for want of that care, it is that that care more often than not has to be paid for out of savings, and if it involves moving to a home, the sale of your home. If you have the assets you will already get the care labour are promising, and if you haven’t you will almost certainly be getting it for free already. www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/care/paying-for-care/financial-assessment/
The real issue is that the cost of care the Councils are able to meet for those without assets is not consistent with the actual cost particularly if those needs are more complex. Councils are trying to work to budgets of £350 per week when in some places a privately funded care home place is more like £1500. In some cases the care homes, especially if they are non profit (and you really want to be in a non profit home which is focused on their residents not profit) they cross subsidise but homes that provide places for non self funding residents are going out of business. There is a shortage of places and also an incentive for cash strapped Councils to keep people in their homes even if that is a safeguarding issue and that persons needs are not being met even though Councils have a statutory duty to ensure people are safe in their homes even if they are mentally competent and refuse help. That is why orthopaedic wards are clogged with dementia patients who have fallen. None of the old ladies I met during my daughters hospital stay were self evidently mentally / physically competent enough to be living at home safely, they had fallen out of bed, walked into doors, tripped and fallen and some of them were extremely distressed because they didn’t know where they were. They all went home. It is a huge burden on an already struggling NHS.
The whole “dementia tax” issue of the last election was a prize bit of spin. What was proposed was actually going to raise the threshold of savings that you could have before you had to pay for your care. It was an attempt to put together a workable solution to a growing issue, it is just the majority of voters had no idea that dementia care is already paid for from peoples assets.
So caring for the complex needs of an aging population is very expensive so society faces an issue about how it gets paid for. Either we increase taxes on the already financially disadvantaged working population to pay for free care for all but no political party is going to commit to that, not even the Conservatives whose voter base they are 🤔 or people pay for it, or a mixture of both.
Personally I think people should let loose of the idea that they inherit wealth, I had absolutely no problem with my FIL’s home being sold to pay for him to be secure and given dignity as the dementia took hold, the home even took him back when the NHS gave up on him, and gave him a more peaceful and dignified death than he would ever have had on an NHS ward. There is no price on that. I have no problem in not passing my wealth to my children and seeing it either contribute to my care or wider society but my close friend who is a Monentum supporter can not cope with that idea, though she does appreciate the irony.
It is a huge and difficult problem and there is no easy solution, certainly not one that is palatable to the electorate. Promising free help to get dressed and fed is just populist window dressing. It is exactly the same as Boris promising more money for Police or the NHS, the same disconnect with the complexity of the reality.