Department of Health threshold ”abandons disabled people”

The Department of Health has claimed that new social care draft rules will end the postcode lottery of elderly care but charities have said that the minimum threshold for care set by the government is too high and too many vulnerable people will lose out.

From 2015, local authorities in England will have no choice but to pay for care of those who are deemed to have needs that are “substantial” – the next level down from “critical”.

But the fear is that if councils use this as the starting point for care, people who only need basic help – for such tasks as eating, dressing and washing – will go to the bottom of the pile.

According to the latest figures, 130 local authorities already provide services to those with substantial needs, 16 also help those whose needs are “moderate”, and three councils pay for care for people whose needs range from low to critical.

The care and support minister Norman Lamb said: “We know people are often confused about what care they can expect from their local authority and far too many end up having to fight for the care that they need because the rules are so complicated.

“In my view, we need to be clear about the basic minimum entitlements to services so that everyone can be reassured there is some level of support they can expect, regardless of where they live.

A national minimum is exactly that – a starting point for local councils to base their care provision on.”

However, Scope’s chief executive Richard Hawkes warned that the proposals would mean that more than 100,000 disabled people who need care to get up, wash, dress and go out would be “shut out of the system”.

“The government has ignored disabled and older people,” he claimed. “It’s ignored public opinion and it’s ignored the experts who are calling for a more preventative system to take pressure off [accident and emergency services].”

And Michelle Mitchell, director general of Age UK, said: “The impact of further raising the bar to entry not only means that those on a low income will have to have higher care needs to benefit from state funded help, but also mean that those with hard earned savings will not be able to benefit from the future cap on care costs unless they are assessed as having needs equivalent to substantial.”

Source Public Service.co.uk