14 people wiped out financially by care bills each day

New analysis from Age UK has found that 14 people exhaust their assets paying for care every day, prompting calls for the Prime Minister to keep his promise to ‘fix social care’.

Published a year on from the Prime Minister’s statement on the steps of No 10 Downing Street that he would fix social care and ensure no one in future would have to sell their home to fund help they cannot live without, the figures indicate that  5190 people were classified as 'self-funders with depleted funds' in 2018/19. Essentially, these are people who had run down their savings and assets until they had virtually nothing left, because of having to pay for care.

This represents a sharp increase of more than a third (37 per cent) in the numbers who find themselves in this terrible position, compared to the previous year.

In England, 167,000 older people and their families now have to fund their own care because they do not meet the brutal means-test that qualifies you for free or subsidised support. They spent more than £7 billion on care during the 12 months since the Boris Johnson took office.

The charity is now staging a ‘virtual hand in’ of its petition calling on the government to stand by its commitment to fix social care and make it free at the point of use, fair and available for everyone who needs it. The petition was signed by 109,306 people before the pandemic struck.

Age UK is calling on the government to resolve the severe underfunding that afflicted social care even before the pandemic arrived and which meant it was in no position to stand up to Covid-19 when it struck. Councils say that they now need an extra £6 billion in order to meet the extra costs caused by Covid-19.

Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director for Age UK said: “Chronic underfunding put social care on its knees before Covid-19 came roaring in so it was in no position to withstand the battering the virus dealt out. Tragically, there have been an estimated 30,000 excess deaths of older people living in care homes during the pandemic, a shocking number that shames us all.

“When he became Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to fix social care and make sure no one would have to sell their home to pay for it. Now, after all the loss and suffering caused by the pandemic it is more important than ever that he follows through. With 14 people a day being ruined due to sky high care bills and self-funders spending more than £7 billion on care in a year it’s clear that the unlucky individuals who need care face far too high a price. The obvious solution is for us all to share the risk of developing care needs by paying into a national fund, like we do with the NHS.

“More than a hundred thousand members of the public signed our petition before the pandemic, calling on the government to act, and it’s a fair bet that if we ran the same exercise now there would be even more support. Public awareness of what care does and why it matters has been greatly raised during the pandemic, as has admiration for the work paid care staff do – often for only poverty pay.”

Paulette Hamilton, Vice Chair of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “This report is an important and timely reminder of the urgent need for major reform of our social care system. People of all ages should be able to live the lives they want to lead and councils are doing all they can to protect social care services, despite the impact of the pandemic exacerbating the serious long-term funding and demand pressures facing adult social care.

“Coronavirus has raised the profile and value of social care in its own right and we have been calling for a sustainable funding settlement for adult social care, since long before the current crisis. Part of this solution needs to consider how best to address the recognised need for greater fairness in how care is paid for and funded. We look forward to when the cross-party talks on the future of social care finally begin.”