Pensioners launch new care campaign

Britain's biggest pensioner organisation, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) has launched a new campaign entitled Care Free, to coincide with the government's six month's consultation on the future of care and support services. The Care Free campaign will:

• Reject the use of means-testing and call for care to be properly funded by central government to provide free services to all without the use of rationing criteria
• Recognise that the use of personal budgets are not universally suitable or the best way of providing the right type of care for all users
• Demand the postcode lottery in provision of care is ended and replaced with national standards of access and quality of services
• Call for recognition and support, both in financial and practical terms, for the families and carers of users
• Champion the need for properly trained, supervised and paid staff to assess, enable and care for users
• Promote appropriate care to Britain’s diverse pensioner population

Joe Harris, NPC general secretary said: "The voices of pensioners and their carers must be heard loud and clear during this six month consultation period. It seems that everyone acknowledges the growing crisis in social care, but no-one seems prepared to do anything to tackle it. Local authorities have tightened access to services because they have been starved of funds from central government. As a result, hundreds of thousands of vulnerable pensioners have been denied the care they so desperately need. Even those who need help getting out of bed in the morning are being left to fend for themselves. In effect, they either have to rely on friends or family, pay privately or go without."

"Care in this country is still treated like a Cinderella service, which has been under funded and overlooked for years. But those who need the care know that the postcode lottery on access to services, the differing charges around the country, the varying standards of care and the continued use of means-testing are simply intolerable. The government has introduced an artificial dividing line between personal and nursing care when all care should be provided free - and no-one should be expected to sell their home simply to pay for care that in hospital they would get free of charge."