Tens of thousands of Alzheimer's sufferers, and their families, are stranded in a 'No Man's Land' between the NHS and Local Authority Social Care - neither will agree to fund their care without long drawn-out battles over means tests, eligibility based on a primary health need (endlessly disputed), and a gross lack of funding.
Use your March budget statement to honour the Conservative Party's 2015 manifesto commitment, instead of leaving this wicked problem festering until 2020 at the earliest!
Why is this important?
There is currently an estimated £6 billion deficit each year in providing the necessary funding - this means that over 100,000 families are facing financial ruin, adding to the acute misery of seeing their relatives slowly decline.
This problem was recognised some 10 years ago, and the Dilnot Commission reported in 2011 with recommendations that were accepted by the Coalition Government in 2013. The Conservative Party, in their 2015 election manifesto, pledged to implement starting in 2016, only for the present Government to renege on its promise within 3 months of taking office.
The key points in this commitment were:
· A cap on the patient's financial liability for care costs set at £72,000
· The level of assets, below which patients are no longer liable to pay, raised from £23,250 to £118,000
· By 2024, up to 100,000 more to receive financial help with their care costs
The BBC Today programme ran a number of features during the week of February 6th, illustrating how the current policy is having drastic effects on families, tearing them apart with heartless bureaucracy. I took part in one of these programmes, describing how I had to pay nearly £400,000 for my late wife's care costs over 8 years, repeatedly refused help by NHS Continuing Healthcare over 5 years. I was only one of tens of thousands trapped in the 'No Man's Land' between the NHS and Social Care funding.
