Age UK Care in crisis report
A report from Age UK is stating that spend on social care services for older people is reducing.
Key points of the report:
-
The number of people aged 85 and over (the group most likely to need care) has increased by 30 per cent between 2005 and 2014.
- Reductions in funding:
- Between 2005/6 and 2010/11 public funding for older people’s social care has stagnated
- From 2010/11 to 2013/14 public funding for older people’s social care (including transfers from the NHS to councils) has decreased by 10 per cent in real terms.
- Councils have cut back on their funding for social care:
- From 2010/11 to 2013/14 government funding to councils reduced by 19.6 per cent
- Despite increasing the proportion of budget spent on average by councils on adult social care to over 40 per cent in 2013/146, the actual amount spent decreased on average by 20 per cent (£2.8 billioni) between 2011/12 and 2013/14.
- Only 13 per cent of councils considered people with ‘moderate’ needs eligible for funding in 2013/14, compared with nearly half of councils in 2005/6
- Fewer service users supported by public funding
- Decrease in users of community services
- Increase in residents in residential and nursing homes
- Rising contributions from those eligible for public funding
- Unmet need – in 2011, it was estimated that of 2 million older people with care related needs, nearly 800,000 received no support from public or private sector agencies.