New report proves social care system needs radical overhaul

Wednesday, 08 February 2012

Britain's biggest pensioner organisation, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) has welcomed the Health Select Committee's report into social care (published February 8) - but warns that the government will have to go much further if it is to address the serious failings of the current social care system.

Dot Gibson, NPC general secretary said: "The problem with our social care system is that it is the Cinderella of the welfare state experiencing years of underfunding, rationing and poor standards.

Nearly 1m older people are denied any assistance at all, many are still forced to sell their homes in order to pay for care and the cost and quality of some treatment is shocking. The government's expected white paper must seriously consider the creation of a National Care Service that can join up all the dots and offer a comprehensive system for looking after our most vulnerable pensioners.

This new system should be funded by society as a whole, through general taxation, and at its core must be the determination to raise standards within the caring sector. If this issue gets kicked into the political long grass again it will be a national scandal and a betrayal of millions of older people and their families who are currently struggling to cope with a complicated and expensive care system."