The future
Labour’s manifesto commitment is to create a national care service, but with no timescales or funding solutions mentioned.
Reports suggest the party is planning a royal commission into social care, although this did not feature in the recent King’s Speech.
Supporters say it will be important to build cross-party consensus. Cynics say it is unnecessary because we already know the options, and all that is missing is commitment.
However a plan is eventually arrived at, it needs to address some key points:
- Creating clarity where the line is drawn between state support and individual responsibility.
- Being honest with people about the role of their home equity in financing care.
- Ending the unfairness of self-funders subsiding care costs for others.
- Protecting those needing extensive care from catastrophic costs through caps or risk-pooling.
- Providing those needing care with the right information and support at the right time.
- Encouraging and incentivising better planning and financial advice for later life.
- Promoting a competitive market that supports innovation and shares best practice.
Finding a workable solution to deal with these issues could be a decade or more away, so what can be done more quickly?
Getting the priorities right
First, it is important for the government to start giving people confidence that it is prioritising sorting out care.
Our own research during the general election campaign found trust in political parties to sort out care was in tatters.
Labour was the most trusted party – but still, 39 per cent said it was not taking the care issue seriously compared with 35 per cent who said it was.
Second, the funding issue must be addressed.
As a country we are still dealing with the economic squeeze caused by Brexit, the coronavirus pandemic and cost of living crisis.
Labour has promised not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT for five years, so what is left – pensions and inheritances – could be in the firing line.
Third, the over-65s have an estimated £2.7tn of housing wealth, and the over-50s hold 78 per cent of the UK’s housing wealth.
This sum dwarfs the amounts needed to start improving the care system dramatically, and it is held by those who are most likely to need care soonest.
Fourth, we must recognise that providing care is not an end in itself but rather a way to enable a more fulfilling later life. People want to thrive, not just survive.
Great quality care is not about keeping people alive but making their golden years truly worthwhile and enjoyable.
It is about keeping them physically and mentally active and engaged, enjoying friendships as a valued member of a community, retaining a sense of independence and satisfaction in their lives.
Care in this wider sense benefits not just the individual but also society, by reducing pressure and costs on hospitals and more expensive care settings
Labour’s large parliamentary majority gives it room to start making some difficult and unpopular decisions.
The government may also be sympathetic to the need to not further burden working-aged people with the burgeoning costs of the ageing population.
