Social care has been bled dry over the last eight years - Barbara Keeley

Barbara Keeley MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Social Care, commenting on a report by Age UK which shows that more than 50,000 older people have died since the Government promised they would publish a green paper on social care, said:

“The simple truth is that this Tory Government has abandoned vulnerable older people and their families desperate for care.

“Social care has been bled dry over the last eight years, with the system on its knees. Tory Ministers continue to delay giving councils the sustainable funding they need – leaving older people and their families to pay a punishingly high price. 

“Labour pledged at the last election to ease this Tory-made social care crisis by investing an additional £8 billion in social care funding and to implement a maximum lifetime cap on social care costs, so that people do not lose everything to pay for their care.”

Ends

Notes to editors

• ·       Almost 90 people a day died while waiting for care to be arranged for them at home, according to data published by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). In the past year 32,115 adults died before they could get the care they required. https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/adult-social-care-activity-and-finance-report

• ·       More than 60,000 pensioners will lose out thanks to the Government’s decision to delay a cap on care costshttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5529639/60-000-pensioners-set-lose-thanks-governments-decision.html