Labour MP Dan Jarvis, has challenged the Prime Minister David Cameron, on his long term strategy for care in Britain.
During a Commons exchange, Jarvis said, “It is now clear that the Government does not have a comprehensive long-term strategy for care.”
He went on to ask, “So does the Prime Minister agree that the sharp increase in home care charges, released in figures today, is the result of his cut of a billion pounds from local council budgets for older people?”
Afterwards, Jarvis explained, “I asked the Prime Minister to explain to me what his long-term strategy for Care is, in Britain. He fundamentally failed to do that. Britain’s care system is complex and fraught with inadequacies. The biggest injustice in the care system at present, is the variations in the cost of care for older and disabled people, depending on where in the country they live.
“And despite local councils having to introduce increases in charges for home care services, which help frail and vulnerable older and disabled people get up, washed, dressed and fed, I am sympathetic to local councils who have to make really tough decisions. David Cameron has imposed a reckless cut to local authority budgets, which means the average charge for an hour of home care has gone up by 10% between 2009/10 and 2012/13, from £12.29 to £13.61.
“Older and disabled people are now facing huge variations in the price they pay for home care depending on where they live.
“Cameron must get real over the growing care crisis. Their cuts to local council budgets have pushed a system that was already under pressure close to breaking point. More than £1billion has been cut from local council budgets for older people’s social care since the Coalition came to power.
“The reality is, the Prime Minister and his Cabinet have made the decision to make the most vulnerable people in our communities pay the highest price for the greed and manipulation of wealthy bankers that caused a global financial crisis.”