BRITONS are living to a riper age—but not without help. As the population greys, more people are needing assistance with washing, dressing and other aspects of their daily care. The King’s Fund, a health think-tank, predicts that over the next 15 years the number requiring such help will rise by 61%. Yet funding for it is shrinking. Between 2010-11 and 2014-15, 15% was sliced off local-authority spending on social care. Pressure is building as the government seeks a further £20 billion ($31 billion) in departmental cuts ahead of a spending review in November.
The squeeze comes as costs are rising. The Local Government Association has calculated that in order to pay all care workers the new £9 minimum wage by 2020, an extra £1 billion will be needed (for context, last year’s entire adult social-care bill was £14 billion). The final straw could be a national shortage of nurses, which is forcing care homes to pay through the nose for agency staff, who charge double the amount of a regular nurse.
Local authorities have responded by tightening eligibility for services, pushing more of the burden onto private purses and unpaid...Continue reading
via Brian Rushton, Frailer
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