Has the Government set the threshold too high for the new national care eligibility criteria?

Michelle Mitchell, charity director general of Age UK

Norman Lamb, Care Minister

YES

The Government has announced new national eligibility criteria setting out a minimum threshold on who should be offered care and support by local authorities in England. However charities such as Age UK are concerned that the threshold could lead to millions of vulnerable people losing out on vital care and support.

Under the draft rules published by the Department of Health, all councils in England would have to fund services for those judged to have 'substantial' needs from 2015. There are four thresholds - low, moderate, substantial and critical. In recent years, many councils have stopped providing support to people with low and moderate needs and the majority of councils now only fund people who have ‘substantial needs’.

Michelle Mitchell, charity director general of Age UK said: “We have always said national eligibility criteria are welcome for reasons of consistency, but only if they are set at a fair level. We believe the equivalent of ‘substantial’ sets the bar too high: ‘moderate’ would be much more in tune with the spirit of the Government's new Care legislation, and with what the public has been led to expect.

“Although this may sound like a technicality, the final decision about these criteria is crucial: as it stands millions of older people and their families who have assumed they will benefit from the Government's social care reforms will miss out. But there is still time for the Government to change their minds and Age UK will be campaigning to persuade them to do so.”

NO

Care Minister Norman Lamb has said the criteria is being introduced to put an end to the ‘postcode lottery’ because “we know people are often confused about what care they can expect from their local authority and far too many end up having to fight for the care that they need because the rules are so complicated”.

He claims the Government has set the threshold at the level of ‘substantial’ need in order to “let councils keep current levels of access to care and support services”.

He added: “In my view, we need to be clear about the basic minimum entitlements to services so that everyone can be reassured there is some level of support they can expect, regardless of where they live. A national minimum is exactly that – a starting point for local councils to base their care provision on.”

“We want to make the system of care and support even better in the future and we will bring together a working group of users of services, carers, local authorities and academics will develop and test options for a possible new assessment framework.

“The group will hold its first meeting later in the summer and will be looking at how the assessment framework can support independence and reduce dependency.”