The issue of social care is threatening to become yet another headache for the coalition. Despite a pledge by ministers to provide more funding, a survey by Age UK has found that English councils are planning to cut spending on social care for pensioners by £610m this year, or 8.4 per cent. Average net spending on those who need care is set to fall from £2,548 to £2,335. At a time when there are 800,000 older people who need care but do not receive it, a figure that is set to increase to one million by 2014, any suggestion of cuts is toxic for a government.
The care services minister, Paul Burstow, has already responded by arguing that the charity’s figures “simply don’t add up”, claiming that Age UK has factored in only 35 per cent of a £1bn cash transfer from the NHS. He said: “Age UK’s research does not give the full picture and they have seriously underestimated the amount of additional support for social care and older people in particular.”
But Labour has gone on the attack this morning, warning that this is yet another area in which the coalition is cutting “too far and too fast”. The shadow care services minister, Emily Thornberry, said: “Labour warned from the start that the Tories’ plans to slash council budgets would mean deep cuts to care services and would see the most vulnerable in our society suffer.”
Ed Miliband, who forged close links with charities whilst minister for the third sector, has recently proved adept at using third parties to advance his cause at PMQs. Age UK, which was voted charity of the year by MPs and Lords just a month ago, has provided the Labour leader with yet more evidence to buttress his argument against the cuts.
In the meantime, the debate over the long-term future of social care gathers intensity. The Dilnot Commission is set to recommend that individuals pay between £35,000 and £50,000 towards the cost of their care before the state steps in. This will allow the threshold for means-tested care to be raised from £23,250 to £100,000, ensuring that far fewer need to sell assets such as their family home. After the Tories’ cynical “death tax” poster destroyed early hopes of a cross-party consensus, Miliband has made a “genuine and open” offer to try to reach agreement once the commission reports. But George Osborne’s threat to “strangle the proposals at birth” and the war of words over cuts means that consensus may prove elusive again.
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