An Age UK Review shows that Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable older people struggle to get by with little or no care because of cuts to care in England

Age UK review into vulnerable older people struggling, due to cuts to care

The article below is featured on the BBC Website this week. It shows that thousands of vulnerable older people are struggling to get by with little or no care in some instances, due to cuts to care in England.

See the main highlights of what the feature showed below.

The Age UK review found that some people could not even:

  • Wash
  • Dress
  • Feed Themselves

Yet were being left to fend for themselves by councils. And the charity warned that the whole system was close to collapse in some areas with services closing.
It comes after the government said it was looking to solve the problems.

The review looked at existing data and concluded there were nearly 1.2 million people who were not now getting the care they need – a rise of 48% since 2010, which included:

  • 696,500 who do not get any help, of whom 53,000 have trouble with at least three daily tasks such as washing, dressing and eating
  • 487,400 get help but not enough to cover their needs

The charity said this had been caused by cuts to council budgets which had led to a rationing of services.
Last year, fewer than half of the people who requested help from councils were given it.

Cuts to funding

Councils spent £16bn last year on services for elderly and disabled people. It comes after funding from central government was cut by a third in real terms during the last Parliament.

Councils protected social care by making big cuts elsewhere but still had to reduce the amount they spent on social care by 6%.

Ministers have given councils the ability to ring-fence council tax increases for care services in the coming years and have used NHS money to invest in services, but the LGA predicts by 2020 there will still be a £2.6bn shortfall.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said it was not all about money, but added ministers were “working to find a long-term, sustainable solution”.

Read the full feature over on the BBC Website – ‘Frail, elderly people ‘left to struggle alone’

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