Money spent on social care for the elderly has fallen by £1.1billion in the past five years despite a rise in demand, an alarming report has shown. Today just nine per cent of those over 65 receive any help as they get older, a decrease of more than 40 per cent, regardless of the fact retirees have grown by 16 per cent. Despite figures revealing there are 900,000 older people between 65 and 89 who have unmet needs for social care, services have been hit incredibly hard. Worryingly nearly a third of older people who need help carrying out essential day-to-day activities do not receive assistance at all. Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK, who carried out the report, dubbed the system in “calamitous” decline. She said: “This devastating scorecard speaks for itself and it lays bare the fact that our State funded social care system is in calamitous, quite rapid decline. “The more preventive services like meals on wheels and day care are being especially hard hit, leaving the system increasingly the preserve of older people in the most acute need, storing up big problems for the future.” The damning figures show that older people receiving home care fell by just under a third between 2010/11 and 2013/14, while day care places plummeted by 67 per cent. In the same period the number of elderly receiving vital equipment and adaptations to help remain safe at home dropped by 42 per cent. Those receiving meals on wheels also dramatically fell by just over two thirds. The Age UK ‘score card’ has revealed that spending on home care has dropped by 19 per cent, from £2.25 billion to just £1.8billion. Spending on day care has fallen even more dramatically by 30 per cent, from £379million to £264million. Even accounting for additional funding from the NHS the study reveals support has still fallen from the government. Caroline Abrahams added: “Today, many hospitals are finding it hard to discharge older people and commentators are asking why this challenge seems to be growing, year on year. “A big part of the explanation is revealed by this scorecard: the marked decline in central Government funding for social care and the resultant reduction in support for older people to live independently at home – this at the same time as their numbers are rising. “Until recently the impact of the decline in social care has been relatively hidden, but social care is a crucial pressure valve for the NHS and the evidence of what happens when it is too weak to fulfil that function is clear for us all to see. “So policymakers owe it to the public, older people especially, to confront the crisis in social care and its consequences. “Above all, this scorecard makes clear that for any policymaker to acknowledge the need for investment in the NHS while omitting to mention social care is not good enough and will ultimately not solve the problems facing the NHS either.” More than half of those who struggle to wash do not receive any help, while one in three of those who find it difficult to use the toilet are also left on their own. A little over two fifths who find it hard to get dressed are left without help, while two thirds are left to eat on their own and four in five struggle to take medication. Charity Independent Age, Chief Executive, Janet Morrison commented: “These figures reinforce concern that cuts to social care have a shocking impact on the most vulnerable in our society and put even more pressure on the NHS, as the crisis in A&E demonstrates. In the run up to the general election we want all politicians to have an honest debate about how much as a society we are prepared to pay to have a social care system that is truly fit for purpose.” Nearly a third of older people who have difficulty in carrying out some essential activities of daily life do not receive any formal help. The stark reality is that every day hundreds of thousands of older people in the UK are left to battle on alone without the care and support they most desperately need. You can find out more about Age UK’s Care in Crisis campaign, sign up for our newsletters, and take action by visiting our website: www.ageuk.org.uk/get-involved/campaign/ or call Age UK Advice: 0800 169 6565
