People in denial about ageing and unaware of social care costs – review leader

Résumé détaillé

Baroness Louise Casey accused successive governments of being ‘asleep at the wheel’ on funding and provision.

Many people are in denial about getting older and remain focused on “trying to keep young” which has left adult social care as a forgotten “Cinderella service”, the leader of a review into reform of the sector has said.

Baroness Louise Casey – who has accused successive governments of being “asleep at the wheel” on funding and provision over the years – said public knowledge of how social care works, including the fact it is not free at the point of use like the NHS, is “so low”.

Her independent commission into care, which is expected to report next summer, has published new research concluding adult social care is a “fundamentally fragmented system” with no-one in charge overall.

People with savings worth more than £23,250 are not entitled to help with the cost of care from their local council and high fees sometimes mean people are forced to sell their homes to pay for what they need.

In an interview with the Press Association, Baroness Casey said: “It’s not like we’re not already paying for social care, and in a way, we’re paying for failed social care.”

She welcomed Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s proposed changes to the pensions triple lock to pay towards a National Care Service as “a major win for social care”.

Mr Burnham announced in September that he would end the policy which guarantees increases to the state pension in line with inflation, earnings or 2.5%, according to whichever measure is highest.

Instead, it could rise in some years in “relative” value to earnings and it is hoped the measure will generate about £15 billion a year by the end of the 2030s.

In the aftermath of Mr Burnham’s address, the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggested savings would not be enough, but Baroness Casey told PA: “I felt that was a very significant win for adult social care, and particularly to develop a service for the people that I feel we’re not spending enough money on, we’re not delivering enough services to, which is a new service, really, an additional service for the frail…

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