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Social services "helping only the neediest"

29/01/2008 17:26

By Peter Apps

LONDON (Reuters) - Faced with an ageing population and limited resources, councils are excluding more and more elderly and disabled people from care, a report said on Tuesday.

The Commission for Social Care Inspection said it had found wide inconsistencies across Britain, with some of the neediest well-assisted but others receiving little care and either ending up trapped in their own homes or institutionalised.

The government said it is unhappy with the variations.

"It is not acceptable," social care minister Ivan Lewis told the BBC. "That’s why today I’m announcing a fundamental review of the system which determines who gets care."

The health service will have to spend more resources on coping with dementia as the population ages, he said.

"It is the new heart care, the new cancer care, the new stroke care," he said. "Dementia is one of the great issues we now have to face up to."

With the generation that fought World War Two and saw the founding of the welfare state 60 years ago, now frail and their children retiring and needing assistance themselves, councils say they face harsh choices.

Those getting care have more choice over how they receive it than ever before, the report said, but others might get nothing.

"Those who qualify for council support are .....continued below

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having a better experience than before," said commission chairwoman Denise Platt.

"On the other hand, those people who fall outside the system ... have a poor quality experience that can leave them struggling to cope. People who only five years ago qualified for council-arranged help are today excluded ... and left to fend for themselves."

Elderly and disabled groups say those needing services have to fight for them at every stage as they are always worried about cuts. Charity Age Concern said the review was not enough.

"A review of eligibility criteria is very welcome but what is needed is a substantial increase in care funding," its Director General Gordon Lisham said.

The number of elderly people receiving services fell from 867,000 in 2003 to 840,000 in 2006, the report said -- despite the overall over-75 population increasing nearly 3 percent.

The Local Government Association, representing councils in England and Wales, said government funding had not kept pace with demand and councils could be forced to cut services to those with "low or moderate" needs by as early as 2009.

(Editing by Andrew Hough)