Conservatives, Labour and The Brexit Party snub elderly voters' invite to discuss care

Conservative leader Boris Johnson, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party have rejected calls to attend Age UK’s invite to discuss social care with elderly voters.

Older people are dying at a rate of three every hour in England (74,000 in total) waiting for social care, according to Age UK but the charity has been let down by the country’s major political parties, who refused to face questions posed by elderly people.

Older people dying at a rate of three every hour

The startling figure is calculated for the period between the 2017 and 2019 general elections, highlighting the crisis in social care. However, only the Liberal Democrat party agreed to face grey voters' questions at the charity's election rally.

Charity director at Age UK Caroline Abrahams, said “We are very sorry to announce that while over 300 older people had signed up to attend our General Election Rally, unfortunately all major parties have been unable to confirm they would send a spokesperson.

“As a result, to ensure political balance, we are sorry to say that we will not be offering any party a platform at Thursday’s event.”

The event was changed to a 'Have Your Say'- style workshop without any political parties present at Westminster’s QE2 Conference Centre on 21 November.

Questions were posed to the elderly audience instead by Age UK charity representatives to highlight the concerns of elderly voters.

Ms Abrahams said: “We will instead use the event as an opportunity to gather the views of older people about the issues that matter to them and communicate them during the remainder of this campaign and into the next Parliament.”

78 ‘fruitless claims’ an hour

Age UK analysis estimates that in the 30 months between the last and the forthcoming General Elections, 74,000 over-65s in England have died or will die having never received the care and support that they have asked for.

This means in the period 8 June 2017 – 12 December 2019, an average of 81 people a day, equivalent to three every hour, died.

Representatives of the five main political parties ignored the opportunity to set out their domestic policy offer to the older population despite the Conservatives and Labour repeatedly vowing to fix social care.

Age UK has published its own election manifesto calling whichever political party forms the next government to invest £8 billion into the current system over the next two years to prevent more decline and to publish a plan to reform social care.

The charity estimates that in the 18 months between the last and December general elections, 1,725,000 requests have been made, or will be made, by older people for care and support which have resulted in them not receiving a care service.

This is equivalent to 2,000 ‘fruitless claims’ from older people a day, or 78 claims each hour. The manifesto also highlights negative impacts on older people including poverty, ageism, poor housing, loneliness and ill health.

Ms Abrahams added: “Unfortunately we have effectively wasted the last eighteen months, waiting for the Social Care Green Paper that never was.

"Many older people have lost out as a result, including the 74,000 who had applied or will apply for a care service over this period, but who died or will die before a care package was put together and actually provided.

“Social care is not some kind of nice-to-have optional extra, it’s a fundamental service on which millions of older and disabled people depend every day.

’Appalling’ and ‘shameful’

“It is appalling that one and a half million older people in our country now have some unmet need for care, one in seven of the entire older population. This is a shameful statistic, and older people are developing new unmet needs for care every day.

“The truth is that our political system has completely failed when it comes to the reform and funding of social care and older and disabled people are being badly let down.”

To read Age UK’s manifesto visit www.ageuk.org.uk/manifesto