08.06.12
Care ‘crisis’ for council-funded pensioners
Care providers are favouring richer pensioners, a new poll suggests, which could lead to a ‘two-tier’ system in residential care.
Conducted by Labour, the survey found that 60% of care providers questioned were reducing or expecting to reduce the proportion of beds available for council-funded residents.
The survey also found that pensioners funded by councils received care much later, when they were in poorer physical condition and met the council criteria. Privately funded pensioners could sometimes come in years earlier, the responses imply.
Liz Kendall MP, Labour's shadow minister for care, said that the care system was in “crisis”.
She added: “This is having a devastating effect, with some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in society facing a two-tier service for care they desperately need.
“The Prime Minister must act urgently to tackle the care crisis. Labour is calling for legislation in this parliament on a new system for funding social care. Older and disabled people and their families cannot wait any longer for this vital issue to be addressed.”
David Rogers, chairman of the Local Government Association’s community wellbeing board, said: “There isn’t enough money in the system and it needs urgent reform. Councils don't want care homes to go out of business, they need places where older residents can be well cared for.
“However, the long-term triple pressures of insufficient funding, growing demand and escalating costs, coupled with recent central budget cuts, means the current system is under acute financial strain and councils cannot continue to do all they have done in the past.
“The longer ministers procrastinate, the more our population ages and the worse things will become.”
The Department of Health maintained there was funding for the current levels of access and eligibility for care homes and stated the white paper on care would be published “shortly”.
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