GOVERNMENT PLANS FOR CARE SERVICES ARE GROTESQUELY UNFAIR

Published in North Devon Journal on Thu 1st Oct 2009

Last Saturday I presented the Braunton "Breathe Easy" group with their national award as the British Lung Foundation's best new branch.

But my visit was to discuss the Government's Green Paper on "Care and Support". I have received many representations on this: it has certainly provoked a lively debate.

In the paper the Government sets out to build a National Care Service along the lines of the NHS. Ministers point out that current services vary hugely in scale and quality from one area to another.

On top of this "postcode lottery" funding is struggling to keep pace with rising numbers of older people and rising aspirations and expectations. There are few clear rights or entitlements in the current services.

They also want money invested in prevention, rehabilitation and keeping people active, with all the agencies involved linking together better.

So far, so good - but thereafter the consensus comes apart.

One hugely contentious proposal is abolition of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Attendance Allowance (AA), currently paid to people with needs to make their own arrangements.

This might be spent on adaptations to homes, getting shopping done, servicing mobility scooters, extra heating, getting taxis or drivers and many other things. Everyone uses it to make their own life better in whatever way makes the most sense.

The Government plans to pool the DLA and AA money in a big pot to pay for enhanced care services.

This seems mystifying, as it reverses years of encouraging people to take control of their own lives and instead puts power and money back in the hands of the state to decide what is good for you.

And if all the little things which people currently persuade friends, family and neighbours to do for them using DLA /AA money must in future be done by paid carers, then it will cost a lot more money as well as stripping people of dignity, privacy and control.

And the Government also proposes a new "stealth tax" to help pay for the higher costs. They float five funding options but most are bogus so they really only present one so-called "comprehensive" model.

This would force everyone over 65 to pay into a national pot a sum between £17,000 and £20,000 either in instalments or as a lump sum on retirement, or out of their legacy when they die. It revives the unfairness of means-testing which Frank Field MP and others campaign against.

I support sharing the risk of expensive care among all of us, but the fair way is to involve the whole population and not put the whole burden on over-65s.

More information is at http://careandsupport.direct.gov.uk/greenpaper/having-your-say. You can submit comments up until 13 November. Or write to: Care and Support Team, 79 Whitehall, London, SW1A 2NS