Age Cymru presents on funding social care in the future at the Cardiff Business School
Published on 05 June 2019 12:31 PM
Age Cymru is today outlining its ideas on the future funding of social care at the Cardiff Business School's Interdisciplinary Tax Research Group:
Social care has historically suffered as a consequence of under-funding and this situation has been further aggravated in recent years as a result of widespread reductions in public sector budgets. The question of funding social care can be broken down into two parts: funding provided by government for statutory social care services; and the financial contribution that individuals are required to make for the social care they receive.
There is a fundamental debate over the basic fairness of charging people for the care and support they have been assessed as needing. Future arrangements for funding social care should ensure fairness on the "who pays" and "how we pay" for social care, including between the generations, and should aspire over time towards universal access to personal care free at the point of delivery.
Age Cymru's longstanding view is that a far more equitable system would be to ensure that care services are provided free at the point of use in the same way as NHS services. This would ensure that care is available to everyone at their time of need and spread the cost of care services across the generations, instead of the cost simply falling on those people unfortunate enough to develop care needs.
A new, fair and sustainable mechanism for paying for social care in the future needs considerable thought and extensive public debate. We are keen to engage in this debate. Last year, we set up a Task and Finish Group to develop the principles on which Age Cymru believes any new payment mechanism should be based, and provide a starting point for Age Cymru to influence policy and engage in the debate as its terms become clearer.
We expect a new Age Cymru policy statement on paying for social care to be available later in the summer. Watch this space!
For more details contact Dr Valerie Billingham on 029 2043 1555