MP David Blunkett tells care sector "money won't be available" to meet cost of reform

The BBC will this evening broadcast an ‘Inside Out’ programme focusing on the problems the UK faces in financing care for older people, in which former cabinet secretary David Blunkett warns that a political solution is unlikely, despite care reform appearing to be high on the Government’s priority list since the Dilnot Commission was formed in July 2010 shortly after the last general election.

In the programme, Mr Blunkett claims that politicians are afraid of “tax and spend” issues and says the idea of raising taxes to finance the cap on care that the Dilnot Commission recommended at £35,000 was “ridiculous politically because nobody will touch it with a barge pole”.

As an alternative solution, Mr Blunkett calls for: “An imaginative, joined-up, holistic answer that mobilises and supports families with caring, that gets the community involved, that gets ‘younger older’ people who are still active as part of the solution. This is about society as a whole rather than a financial cost. It’s essential because the money won’t be available to do it in any other way.”

The programme comes less than a week after concerns over elderly care financing were found to be higher on voters’ priority lists than has previously been the case, after a poll conducted by ICM for charity Age UK found that one in four voters place care in old age as among their top three policy concerns.

Care financing is also believed to be one of the key issues being discussed by Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, according to unconfirmed reports that the two party leaders are believed to be in the process of agreeing a renewed programme of Government that will see the Coalition survive until 2015 without either party breaking away.

Image courtesy of Labour Party website