The cost of caring for the elderly lies with local government – but they don’t have the funds to cope:
Daniel Clarke at Radio Exe reports on the frustration at Devon County Council:
Council urges government to publish care paper
Originally due by the end of 2017, it’s already missed six deadlines
Devon County Council has urged the Government to get on with publishing its long-awaited Green Paper on how adult social care will be funded and delivered.
Publication of the paper has faced a succession of delays, with six separate deadline having been missed. Originally due by the end of 2017, it still remains unpublished, with an end of June date now the latest target.
The Green Paper has been seen by the sector as needing to confront the issues of the chronic underfunding of the existing means-tested care system, driven by the big cuts in government funding to councils since 2010, and the need to protect self-funding people outside the current system from catastrophic care costs.
It is expected that the long-awaited document will consult on policy ideas such as a more generous means-test, a cap on lifetime social care charges, an insurance contribution model, a care ISA and tax-free withdrawals form pension pots, although care minister Caroline Dinenage has warned that it will not solve all the sector’s problems.
Wednesday’s Devon County Council cabinet meeting considered a motion, submitted by Cllr Frank Biederman, which called for the council to agree that England’s care system needs major reform to provide a long-term sustainable funding solution and to make care free at the point of use.
Council urges government to publish care paper