Where’s the Social Care Plan Boris?

Union Matters May 17 2021

Thousands of people, if not millions, will have been hugely disappointed that the recent Queen’s Speech contained not one reference to the long promised social care crisis and the newly elected Conservative Government’s promise to resolve the problem. Fresh from his victory in the 2019 general election, Boris Johnson stood on the steps of Downing Street and promised the nation that not only would his Government fix the crisis in social care ‘once and for all’ but he went on to say there was a ‘clear plan we have prepared’. Given the Coronavirus crisis and the fact that this wouldn’t be the first Government to promise a solution to the problem and then fail to deliver one, not many people would be surprised that nothing materialised in the Queen’s Speech. However, a delay is one thing and not to not even mention it is another. Some cynical people have speculated that tactically it would suit the Government to delay the announcement until just prior to the next election, which could possibly be next year. Others have argued that they simply haven’t got a plan and have no intention of producing one because they haven’t been able to produce a ‘free market’ scheme that works. Whatever the reason Conservative Party strategists will be pointing out to Johnson that the Conservative Party relies heavily on the votes of the over 50s and in particular pensioners and the retired in elections.

 

Apparently a Government spokesperson has said that the problem is that ‘The more you look at the plan the more difficult it becomes’ and the central question is ‘how a new regime is paid for’.

Under the present arrangements people with assets over £14,250 have to contribute to their care costs, whilst those with assets over £23,250 must meet their bills in full. It has been estimated that around 17,000 older people have to sell their properties every year in order to fund their care. The Health Foundation has said that spending per person on adult care fell in real terms by around 12 percent between 2010 and 2019. The UK spends less on social care than the EU average, according to OECD figures and whilst demand is increasing the cost of provision is also going up. The older population is increasing and people are living longer whilst at the same time the wages and terms and conditions of those who work in the social care system are notoriously low. The NHS is currently having to keep people in hospital longer than necessary because the care system doesn’t have the capacity to deal with the demand, placing even greater pressure on an already underfunded NHS.

 

Johnson has not escaped criticism from the usually Conservative friendly media with even the Mail arguing ‘to do nothing can no longer be an option’ and saying that the Queen’s Speech must address ‘the abject failure over two decades to tackle our deepening social care crisis. On his first day in office, Mr Johnson said he had a plan. He must produce it’. In the meantime those in care, in need of care and approaching old age will continue to be victims of the Government’s failure to tackle the problem and if it is being delayed for political expediency then that is even more of a disgrace. Both Liz Kendall, Shadow Care Minister and Shadow Health Secretary, John Ashworth have quite rightly been very critical of the Government’s failure to resolve the problem but maybe they should not just criticise the Conservatives but publish their own solution. There are a number of examples that they can look at, if they are looking for examples that work. Japan for example has one of the oldest populations in the world. Under the Japanese scheme everyone pays in from the age of 40, through general taxation and social insurance premiums. The individuals themselves pay another 10% of the cost at the point of use. Whilst in Germany the entire workforce puts in 1.5 percent of their salaries, with employers paying the same. Although neither of these schemes may be a system that is suitable for the UK it is definitely a starting point and surely the Party, that produced and implemented the world’s first health service, free to all at the point of delivery and introduced the Welfare State in financially bankrupt post-war Britain, can come up with a blueprint for Social Care in the UK. If Labour ever wants to win back the vote of the majority of elderly people who currently vote Conservative they might want to start with producing their own , cost effective, workable solution to the problem.