LONDON , UK / The Guardian / Society / May 7, 2012
© 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited
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Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.
Report by Centre for Social Justice calls for resources to be concentrated on pensioners with few or no assets
By Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent
Funding for the long-term care of elderly people should be
targeted at the poorest with few or no assets, according to a report by Iain Duncan Smith's thinktank. In a direct challenge to the Dilnot commission, which called for an increase in support for those with assets, the report, by the Centre for Social Justice, calls for resources to be concentrated on pensioners solely dependent on state support.
The centre was established by the work and pensions secretary while he was in opposition. Its report, to be published on Tuesday, is likely to influence ministers as they consider their response to Dilnot. They are holding cross-party talks before the publication of a white paper setting out their proposals.
Dilnot recommended that the threshold of savings and assets above which the state stops offering help with care costs should rise from £23,250 to £100,000. Its other key recommendation was to impose a cap of £35,000 on the amount any individual would have to pay towards their own care costs during their lifetime.
But Transforming Social Care, the new report, sweeps aside these arguments and says the government should concentrate on the neediest pensioners. It is careful not to define who falls into this group, but it is thinking of those who are wholly dependent on the weekly state pension of £107.45 and have few or no other assets.
Christian Guy, managing director of the Centre for Social Justice, says: "Understandably, there is a lot of concern about better-off pensioners being forced to sell their homes and use the proceeds to pay for their care until they drop below the means-tested threshold. But ministers should make the most vulnerable people and the unacceptable conditions they face their first priority, then phase in the Dilnot recommendations so that help can be extended to all."
The centre says that any extra resources should be focused on the poorest members of the "extraordinary generation" who lived through the second world war, because they suffer most severely from the country's "broken" care system.
The report points out that of the 400,000 elderly people living in care homes, nearly two-thirds are funded by the state. Many, according to the centre, suffer poor care because councils use their purchasing power to drive down fees.
The centre says Dilnot "says little about ameliorating the current system, which is in large part failing many … Those proposals do not address the means-tested system for those who have not been fortunate enough to own their own houses but instead find themselves dependent on the state in their old age."
The CSJ report, which points out that nearly £1bn has been "stripped out of social care budgets in England" in the last year, warns that a failure to target resources on the neediest will have a major impact on the NHS.
"Older people, we know, account for two-thirds of overnight stays in hospitals … Free at the point of use, and always open, accident and emergency departments have in many of the most deprived areas become 'catch-alls' for suffering."
Sarah Pickup, chair of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said the new report was a welcome reminder that implementing the Dilnot proposals on their own would not solve the crisis in adult social care.
"The CSJ is right to say that the commission has provided a good answer to the question about how to provide people with more certainty about the costs of care and to reduce the risk of catastrophic costs, but also to point out that solving this problem will not address the wider issue of the need for a level of funding which is sufficient to fund quality support and services to meet needs."
Labour questioned the premise of the CSJ report on the grounds that the current system already focuses on the poorest. People with combined income and assets above £23,250 have to pay for long-term care. Only pensioners with income and assets below £14,250 qualify for the maximum help from local council social care service. Councils have discretion for people with income and assets between those two figures.
Liz Kendall, the shadow social care minister, said: "The current social care system already focuses on the poorest and neediest in society. The problem is that the government's cuts to local council budgets have pushed the care system to breaking point.
"More than £1bn has been cut from council budgets for older people's social care since the coalition came to power. We need sufficient funding for existing services as well as reform for the future. It's a false choice to suggest otherwise."
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| Iain Duncan Smith's thinktank, the Centre for Social Justice, says low pay, poor training and lack of oversight has to led to 'very poor quality of home care for the most disadvantaged older people'. Photograph: Geoff Newton |
The centre was established by the work and pensions secretary while he was in opposition. Its report, to be published on Tuesday, is likely to influence ministers as they consider their response to Dilnot. They are holding cross-party talks before the publication of a white paper setting out their proposals.
Dilnot recommended that the threshold of savings and assets above which the state stops offering help with care costs should rise from £23,250 to £100,000. Its other key recommendation was to impose a cap of £35,000 on the amount any individual would have to pay towards their own care costs during their lifetime.
But Transforming Social Care, the new report, sweeps aside these arguments and says the government should concentrate on the neediest pensioners. It is careful not to define who falls into this group, but it is thinking of those who are wholly dependent on the weekly state pension of £107.45 and have few or no other assets.
Christian Guy, managing director of the Centre for Social Justice, says: "Understandably, there is a lot of concern about better-off pensioners being forced to sell their homes and use the proceeds to pay for their care until they drop below the means-tested threshold. But ministers should make the most vulnerable people and the unacceptable conditions they face their first priority, then phase in the Dilnot recommendations so that help can be extended to all."
The centre says that any extra resources should be focused on the poorest members of the "extraordinary generation" who lived through the second world war, because they suffer most severely from the country's "broken" care system.
The report points out that of the 400,000 elderly people living in care homes, nearly two-thirds are funded by the state. Many, according to the centre, suffer poor care because councils use their purchasing power to drive down fees.
The centre says Dilnot "says little about ameliorating the current system, which is in large part failing many … Those proposals do not address the means-tested system for those who have not been fortunate enough to own their own houses but instead find themselves dependent on the state in their old age."
The CSJ report, which points out that nearly £1bn has been "stripped out of social care budgets in England" in the last year, warns that a failure to target resources on the neediest will have a major impact on the NHS.
"Older people, we know, account for two-thirds of overnight stays in hospitals … Free at the point of use, and always open, accident and emergency departments have in many of the most deprived areas become 'catch-alls' for suffering."
Sarah Pickup, chair of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said the new report was a welcome reminder that implementing the Dilnot proposals on their own would not solve the crisis in adult social care.
"The CSJ is right to say that the commission has provided a good answer to the question about how to provide people with more certainty about the costs of care and to reduce the risk of catastrophic costs, but also to point out that solving this problem will not address the wider issue of the need for a level of funding which is sufficient to fund quality support and services to meet needs."
Labour questioned the premise of the CSJ report on the grounds that the current system already focuses on the poorest. People with combined income and assets above £23,250 have to pay for long-term care. Only pensioners with income and assets below £14,250 qualify for the maximum help from local council social care service. Councils have discretion for people with income and assets between those two figures.
Liz Kendall, the shadow social care minister, said: "The current social care system already focuses on the poorest and neediest in society. The problem is that the government's cuts to local council budgets have pushed the care system to breaking point.
"More than £1bn has been cut from council budgets for older people's social care since the coalition came to power. We need sufficient funding for existing services as well as reform for the future. It's a false choice to suggest otherwise."
© 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited
________________________________________________________
Credit: Reports and photographs are property of owners of intellectual rights.
Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.
