Chancellor George Osborne urged to remember older people in 2013

Campaigners for older people have asked Chancellor George Osborne not to forget the UK’s ageing population in 2013, after yesterday’s Autumn Statement led to concerns that social care services will be seriously harmed by further cuts to local authorities.

chief executive Jeremy Hughes comments: “The decision to cut local authority funding by two per cent in 2015 will have a devastating impact on a social care system which is breaking at the seams and crying for investment and reform. Many people are already being forced to go without essential support and care they rely on to live well. We understand the need for austerity in combating the deficit, but with Britain’s ageing population, there will be over a million people with dementia by 2021. We can’t afford to continue to let down the most vulnerable in society.

“The cuts announced today will increase pressure on the NHS, as more people in need of help and support will reach crisis point. We urge the Government to reconsider these plans ahead of the spending review early next year. We also need to see early action to protect people with dementia from some of the catastrophic costs that they face. This requires caps on costs and also raising of the savings threshold.”

National Pensioners Convention general secretary Dot Gibson was even more critical, saying: “George Osborne might gloat about how he intends to give older people a guaranteed 2.5 per cent increase in the state pension next April – but that guarantee was only put in place to avoid a repeat of the 75p debacle that happened 12 years ago. What he didn’t make clear was that this is just £2.70 a week extra and only £1.60 a week more for millions of older women who don’t get a full pension.

“Even with this increase, one in five older people continue to live in poverty, 3m pensioner households are in fuel poverty and millions more are struggling just to make ends meet. He also said nothing about scrapping the freeze on the age related personal tax allowances which he’s planning for next April, reversing his earlier cut to the winter fuel allowance or making a decision on the future of social care funding – all of which are really important to older people.”

The lack of certainty in the Government’s support for a cap on individual care costs remains a key cause of anxiety within the care sector, after funding was absent from the reforms announced by the now former Health Secretary Andrew Lansley in July. Instead the solution was delayed until next year’s Spending Review.”

Ms Gibson continues: “His refusal to address these issues signals another twelve months of belt tightening amongst Britain’s pensioners – at a time when the super rich are still getting a 5% reduction in their tax rate. It’s frankly immoral, but if he thinks we’ll go away by ignoring us, he’s got another thing coming.”

Conducting a survey on the impact of central government cuts so far, charity Age UK record that 85 per cent of social workers who responded claim to have felt negative effects, with the overwhelming majority expressing concern for the dignity of older people as a result.

Director general Michelle Mitchell comments: “The Chancellor’s announcement that, in 2 years’ time, councils will have to cut another 2 per cent from their budgets is likely to lead to more cuts to frontline care and support services that are already in many cases stripped to the bone.

“Allowing the social care system to limp along leaving too many older people isolated and afraid of what tomorrow might bring, is not only morally questionable but makes no financial sense.”