• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / Independent Living / Election 2017: Tories’ social care plans ignore working-age disabled people
Sue Bott, holding a microphone

Election 2017: Tories’ social care plans ignore working-age disabled people

By John Pring on 25th May 2017 Category: Independent Living

Listen

Disabled campaigners have criticised the Conservative party for ignoring the social care needs of hundreds of thousands of working-age disabled people in its general election manifesto.

The prime minister, Theresa May, was already facing criticism for a chaotic U-turn over the party’s policy on charging for social care.

But now she is also facing accusations that the manifesto only addresses the needs of older people, and completely ignores younger disabled service-users.

Neither the original manifesto position on social care, or the abrupt change of policy announced by May at the weekend, make any mention of working-age disabled people.

The manifesto talks at length instead about “our system of care for the elderly”, “elderly care”, “needs in old age”, “pensioner households with modest assets” and “an efficient elderly care system”.

The policy was to revolve around allowing every older person to retain at least £100,000 of their assets and savings, while the value of people’s homes would now be taken into account – when calculating charges – for those receiving domiciliary care as well as those receiving residential care.

But following widespread criticism, May announced that there would also be a lifetime cap on care charges, although she did not say at what level it would be set.

But despite the U-turn, there was still no mention of working-age disabled people, even though they make up about a third of recipients of adult social care.

Disability consultant Jane Young said the manifesto demonstrates “ignorance of adult social care services”.

She said: “Anyone reading it would assume that only older people use social care services, when in reality one-third of social care service-users are disabled people of working age.

“We’re left completely in the dark as to how the proposals will affect disabled people, including those who’ve had their support reduced following the closure of the Independent Living Fund.

“While disabled people’s employment is mentioned elsewhere in the manifesto, there’s no acknowledgement of the role of social care in enabling many disabled people to work.

“All we have are questions: Will there be different arrangements for working-age service-users?

“How will the proposals affect disabled service-users with mortgages, or when they sell their home and buy another?

“Will adult social care be better funded, so it can enable independent living rather than mere existence?

“After decades of well-meaning reports, culminating in the Dilnot report and the Care Act 2014, we’re once again thrown into uncertainty.

“We expect more than a manifesto that conveniently ignores us.”

Sue Bott (pictured), deputy chief executive of Disability Rights UK, said there was “no information at all about younger people” in the manifesto.

She said she believed that most of the public were unaware that younger disabled people had to pay for their social care.

She said the social care system was “grossly underfunded”, and that younger disabled people paid even more in charges than older people with care needs, who are allowed to keep more of their money through a much more generous minimum income guarantee.

Bott added: “If people realised how much people had to pay in charges, I think they would be pretty outraged. It wouldn’t fit in with the ‘scroungers and strivers’ narrative.

“The current situation [with charging] is completely unacceptable. It seems almost out of control.

“The [government] narrative is ‘we are supporting the people most in need’, but they are not, because what they are doing is giving with one hand and taking away with the other in the form of social care charges.”

Tom Hendrie, head of policy and communications for Cheshire Centre for Independent Living, said: “The whole social care debate seems to be skewed entirely towards older people.

“There are young people today who might need social care for the rest of their lives. How much are they going to pay?

“Does it mean that any working-age disabled person with their own home will never be able to save, for anything, until they hit the cap?”

He also raised concerns that the Tory plans now appeared to be treating recipients of social care in their own homes in the same way as those in residential care, when people who live independently in their own homes have extra costs to pay, such as food and utility bills and council tax.

Elements of the Tory policy on social care charging for older people are now similar to proposals that were included in the Care Act 2014 but were subsequently postponed until 2020.

But those proposals – which included a lifetime cap on charges of £72,000 for older people – would have meant that anyone who developed eligible care needs before the age of 25 would have paid nothing in charges for life.

They would also have meant that working-age disabled people who developed their care needs after 25 would have been left with a higher guaranteed minimum income than at present, after paying any care charges.

Asked why the manifesto makes no mention of the social care needs of working-age disabled people, a Conservative party spokeswoman said: “Our manifesto has committed to making sure nobody has to sell their family home to pay for care. 

“We will make sure there’s an absolute limit on what people need to pay.  And you will never have to go below £100,000 of your savings, so you will always have something to pass on to your family.”

Further details would be set out in a green paper.

Share this post:

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on Reddit

Tags: Conservatives General election Jane Young social care Sue Bott Theresa May

Related

‘Severely neglected’ man found dead, three months after DWP assessment
19th May 2022
Government’s ‘criminal’ plans for care charging ‘will crush disabled people under debts’
28th April 2022
Call for action on care charges, after woman’s suicide was linked to council’s invoices
14th April 2022

Primary Sidebar

Image shows a man wearing glasses sitting by an open laptop The text reads: Free Career Support for Disabled People Our services include: 1-2-1 Coaching Online Career Resources Find Support near you Search for Inclusive Jobs Career Events and Workshops Visit the Evenbreak Career Hive today to find out how we can help you

Access

Latest Stories

Grenfell: Call for action over government’s ‘deplorable’ decision on evacuation plans

‘Severely neglected’ man found dead, three months after DWP assessment

Government brands DNS ‘vexatious’ for trying to obtain info on 90 DWP deaths

Government’s ‘milestone’ disability jobs stats ‘are meaningless when it comes to equality’

Concern over offensive LGBT+ comments at access awards event

Universal credit boss defends years of misleading information

Discrimination could be a cause of increased risk of Covid death, says ONS

Access to Work in crisis as figures show ‘massive’ waiting-list

Queen’s speech: Activists’ message to Patel over new protest bill: ‘We fight on’

Queen’s speech: Six bills that may change disabled people’s lives, for better and for worse

Advice and Information

The Department for Work and Pensions: Deaths, cover-up, and a toxic 30-year legacy

Readspeaker

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2022 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web