• 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 / Johnson ignores working-age care… again, and suggests further delays to reform
Boris Johnson speaking in the Commons

Johnson ignores working-age care… again, and suggests further delays to reform

By John Pring on 16th January 2020 Category: Independent Living

Listen

The prime minister has again ignored the needs of working-age disabled people when asked about his plans for social care funding reform, and has suggested that those reforms may take as long as five years to implement.

Boris Johnson (pictured) was asked about his plans by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in prime minister’s questions yesterday (Wednesday).

Corbyn said that it had been three years since the government promised to publish a green paper on adult social care, and seven months since Johnson “stood on the steps of Downing Street and said he had prepared a clear plan to fix the crisis in social care”.

But Johnson’s reply, and answers he gave earlier in the week, suggested that he did not yet have a plan prepared and that he was focused – like many other politicians – on the needs of older people, rather than those of working age.

He said there was “a growing consensus” on the need to “tackle the issue of social care, so that everybody has dignity and security in their old age and nobody has to sell their home to pay for the cost of their care”.

He added: “With the help and co-operation of the Labour party and other parties in this House, we will go ahead with a fantastic plan for social care.”

Johnson’s comments came days after he told a BBC interviewer that the government would be “bringing forward a plan this year” but that it would be implemented by the end of the current parliament, suggesting it could take as long as five years.

During the general election campaign, international trade secretary Liz Truss admitted that she did not believe the government’s long-awaited green paper on adult social care even existed.

And in October, a Tory cabinet minister admitted there was not even consensus within the government on how to solve the adult social care funding crisis.

The latest exchanges came days after disabled people again spoke publicly about the impact of further proposed cuts and increased charges on social care provision.

Activists told Greenwich council that its planned changes would force some disabled residents to cut spending on food and clothes, and could lead to some taking their own lives.

They have threatened the council with legal action and want to see an inquiry into how its social care is funded.

Last August, Disability News Service reported that disabled campaigners had warned that the council’s proposals to increase care charges could force them and others to quit their jobs and stop their volunteering work, and push many others into poverty.

One influential campaigner warned then that she could be forced to reduce her care from 63 hours a week to just seven, and might have to consider residential care, if Greenwich council went ahead with its plans.

 

A note from the editor:

Please consider making a voluntary financial contribution to support the work of DNS and allow it to continue producing independent, carefully-researched news stories that focus on the lives and rights of disabled people and their user-led organisations.

Please do not contribute if you cannot afford to do so, and please note that DNS is not a charity. It is run and owned by disabled journalist John Pring and has been from its launch in April 2009.

Thank you for anything you can do to support the work of DNS…

Share this post:

TwitterFacebookWhatsAppReddit

Tags: adult social care Boris Johnson independent living Jeremy Corbyn social care social care green paper

Related

Government’s pandemic failings caused us ‘horrendous’ challenges, say DPOs
23rd December 2020
High court care charging victory ‘highlights flawed social care system’
23rd December 2020
Prime minister must abandon ‘reckless’ COVID Christmas plans, say DPOs
17th December 2020

Primary Sidebar

Access

Latest Stories

Philippa Day: Young mother ‘took her own life after being told to attend PIP assessment’

Philippa Day: DWP phone agent ignored sobbing claimant who later ‘took her own life’

Philippa Day: DNS wins legal fight with DWP over ground-breaking release of secret report into benefit death

New figures set to provide clearer picture of disproportionate pandemic deaths of disabled people

Peer calls for disabled people to ‘take control’ over PA vaccinations

Rights concerns over major Mental Health Act reforms

High court hears of ‘catastrophic’ impact of ‘fitness for work’ system

Disabled high-rise leaseholders are living in post-Grenfell fear of fire and financial ruin

Disabled people highlight scores of lockdown concerns

Regulator investigates DWP over universal credit ‘cover-up’

Advice and Information

DWP: The case for the prosecution

Readspeaker

Footer

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

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

Copyright © 2021 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web