Age UK briefs on pensioner poverty and worries over the Care at Home Bill
29th January 2010
Age UK (formerly Age Concern and Help the Aged, who have now merged to form one voice for older people) briefed Margot James on some of the main issues that will form the Age UK manifesto to be published ahead of the General Election.
One of the main issues discussed was poverty in old age. Some of the poorest people living on state benefits are still not getting all the benefits to which they are entitled. The complex system of means tested benefits puts some people off claiming and confuses others. The net result is that approximately £2 billion of pension credit goes unclaimed with more than a third of people entitled to it not receiving it.
Age UK also estimate that more than one in ten pensioners do not claim housing benefit to which they are entitled and a huge 40% plus do not claim the council tax benefit to which they are entitled.
Age UK are also concerned by the Government’s new “Care at home bill.” The concept of improving and guaranteeing personal care at home is welcomed of course but there are reservations around how it will be funded, how the level of care which an individual needs will be determined, and the impact the bill might have on older people with care needs not defined as critical.
Margot said “Initially the government were looking at funding this commitment by cutting the disability living allowance and the attendance allowance, pressure from the Conservative Party and disability groups have forced a backtracking on this but funding remains uncertain; now it looks as if it will come in part from existing health budgets and partly from yet more “efficiencies” in local government, but most local authorities have set out their budgets for 2010/11 and have already been forced to cut their budgets over last year by 3% so where are these savings supposed to come from?”
Margot agreed with Age UK that the trend towards care at home being restricted to those in critical need might be accelerated by this bill at great cost to older people with lesser but real care needs. To say nothing of the pressure on hospital beds being blocked by older people in need of care packages at home that are increasingly hard to finance unless they are have critical needs.
