Age UK yesterday published a damning report, which shows the depth of the crisis in social care and its consequent human cost.
The report ‘Care in Crisis: Causes and Solutions’ provides the evidence to prove that care and support for older people in England has reached breaking point.
800,000 people who currently need care receive no formal support from either the state or private sector agencies.
That figure may well rise to one million people within four years as a result of estimated cuts to already threadbare social care budgets.
Report author, Age UK’s director of policy and public affairs Andrew Harrop said: ‘Over the last six years publicly funded social care for older people has been systematically starved of cash.’
The report also shows that by 2014, England will be spending £250 million less on older people’s care than a decade previously (in real terms).
Even before the cuts began, spending was only £40 million higher than in 2004.
Yet at the same time the number of people aged over 85 who most often need care has risen by 630,000.
Harrop added: ‘Age UK found that public sector commissioners are underpaying for older people’s care homes by a total of around half a billion pounds.
‘The average shortfall per resident is £60 per week, rising to £120 per week in south-east England.
‘Many care homes are demanding that older people and their relatives “top up” their care fees with private money.’
He said that this is a ‘real injustice’ that forces families to subsidise the state’s statutory duties.
Harrop warned: ‘Today taxpayers spend 0.5 per cent of GDP on care for older people in England.
‘If we merely maintain this level we will cause misery and danger for hundreds of thousands of frail older people.’
In a costed package of solutions, the report estimates that Britain needs to spend a minimum of 0.9 per cent of GDP on care in later life by the mid-2020s: around £2-3bn a year.
The publication of the Age UK report comes as The Dilnot Commission finalises its recommendations on the future funding of care and support in England. The commission is due to publish its findings at the beginning of July.
Age UK is calling for the government to sign-up to concrete plans for reform and commit an essential £2 to £3 billion for older people’s care, to prevent the system, as it stands, from collapsing.
Michelle Mitchell, Charity Director for Age UK said: ‘Care and support in England has reached breaking point, putting older people at risk and their families under intolerable strain.
‘The figures we have uncovered beggar belief. How can any civilised society accept the prospect of one million of its older citizens going without any services to meet their care needs?’
