Labour fail elderly as home sales for care hit 420,000

In response to the unprecedented second report by the Royal Commissioners, Long-term Care: Statement by Royal Commissioners, published today, which expresses 'widespread concern' at the Government's inaction over care for the elderly, Liberal Democrat research has found that since Labour came to power an estimated 420,000 people have had to sell their homes to pay for basic care, including help with feeding, washing, toileting and dressing.

The Royal Commissioners' report pushes care of the elderly centre stage at Labour's Bournemouth Conference and moves the debate onto Liberal Democrat ground, according to Liberal Democrat Shadow Minister for Older People, Paul Burstow MP.

Commenting on the report, Paul Burstow MP said:

"Tony Blair has betrayed pensioners and their families. Labour has forced thousands of older people to sell their homes to pay for long term care.

"The Royal Commissioners are right to warn the Government that, unless they act on free care for the elderly, the system will implode.

"Minister's are treating the elderly in England like third class citizens. Their failure to follow Scotland's lead and make personal care free on the basis of need should haunt Tony Blair.

"Labour's cheapskate 'free-nursing care' scheme is a cruel hoax, which leaves frail elderly people picking up much of the bill for the most basic and intimate care they need.

"By re-igniting the debate on care and dignity in old age, the Royal Commissioners have turned the spotlight on what will be a key domestic battleground at the next General Election.

"Liberal Democrats can point to our record in Government in Scotland and guarantee that, where we have power, we will scrap the charges for personal care."

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. Briefing on Long Term Care and Research into home sales for care:

In 2001 Paul Burstow MP surveyed local authorities in England to ascertain how many people were having to sell their homes to meet the costs of residential or nursing home care. The results pointed to approximately 70,000 homes a year being sold, which is approximately 420,000 since Labour came to power. A copy of the research findings and further background briefing is available on request. Contact Sally Burnell on 07659 124 377.

2. The original report of the Royal Commission on Long Term Care: With Respect to Old Age was published in March 1999. Web link:

http://www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm41/4192/4192-00.htm

3. Key quotes from the Royal Commissioners Statement (our emphasis in bold):

The statement can be read in full at:

http://www.ltc-commissioners.org.uk

On the definition of personal care:

18. As a comprehensive expression of the Royal Commission's concept of 'intimate personal care', we cannot better the definition adopted by the Scottish Executive.

Personal Hygiene: Bathing, showering, hair washing, shaving, oral hygiene, nail care;

Continence Management: Toileting, catheter/stoma care, skin care, incontinence laundry, bed changing;

Food and Diet: Help with eating and special diets and with food preparation;

Immobility: Dealing with the consequences of not being able to move;

Counselling and Support: Behaviour management, psychological support, reminding and safety devices;

Simple Treatments: Assistance with medication (including eye drops), application of creams and lotions, simple dressings, oxygen therapy;

Personal Assistance: Assistance with dressing, surgical appliances, prostheses, mechanical and manual aids; help with getting up and going to bed; transfers including use of a hoist.

19. This definition covers care needs resulting from all forms of illness or disability, including for example the distinctive problems of paralysis. By no stretch of the imagination can even one element of care of this nature be said to be optional or simply a matter of convenience. It is a vital part of health care in the broadest sense.

20. The distinction between nursing and personal care is not simply artificial nor publicly understood. In an age of consumer choice it is essentially a producer-driven approach. The needs of patients should always come first. The current funding regime, by linking entitlement to care given by nurses, puts providers before patients. Nurses are in effect the gatekeepers to free as opposed to means-tested care. There is more than a hint that government has decided how much money should be spent on care funding and has devised a pragmatic way of spending it without regard to patients' needs. This is the opposite of how older people should be looked after.

On the case for free personal care on the basis of need not means:

40. Whatever funding regime is in place for long-term care should be founded on clear principle. That at least was true of the regime we discovered in 1997. The principle then was that people should pay all care costs themselves, and the state should pay for the less well-off in part or full according to their means. Outside Scotland, the current regime is not based on equivalent clear principle. The Royal Commission's recommendation that the state should meet the cost of personal care, was explicitly intended to place intimate personal care, as an unforeseeable and costly contingency, among the category of 'goods' which a responsible society should provide to its citizens free at the point of use.

41. We acknowledge unreservedly that the Commission's proposal would cover people at all levels of income and wealth, in exactly the same way as, for example, school, hospitals and libraries are provided free to all by the state from general taxation. This is part and parcel of living in a progressive society, in which 'need' for public provision is measured not simply in financial terms but as part of wider social inclusion, and is matched by a progressive tax system. We believe that this is in the best tradition of social policy in this country.

42. It is true that some 70% of older people in long-term care get some state help with the costs. Many of these people will have had to use their not necessarily large capital, including the proceeds of selling their house, and so suffer the indignity of being reduced to penury before state support kicks in.

On the cost of implementing free personal care:

49. On the issue of affordability, therefore, our judgement in 2003 is the same as in 1999. There are no overwhelming resource impediments to the implementation of the Royal Commission's recommendation. If Government believes that long-term care funding is an important issue - and presumably it does, otherwise the Royal Commission would not have been set up - it can find the necessary resources both now and in the future. More important, the limited changes to the care funding system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have not addressed the deep-seated issues of inequity, hardship and the need for a principled approach across the United Kingdom. The system in these countries is unstable. If not dealt with in the near future, it will implode.