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National Insurance will be increased to pay for care, with new asset thresholds determining how much people pay and a cap on how much people will have to spend during their lifetimes.
Boris Johnson has announced a major shake-up of social care funding in England.
A hike in National Insurance will pay for a pledge made when Mr Johnson became prime minister in 2019 to “fix the broken care system”. However, this means he will be breaking his promise to not raise taxes, which has angered Tory backbenchers. Mr Johnson said he was unable to keep that promise due to the COVID pandemic.
What are the changes to social care?
Social care supports the elderly and disabled adults of all ages with non-clinical needs in people’s own homes, residential care homes or in places such as day centres or supported housing.
Unlike the NHS, it has no dedicated funding and is paid for through local authorities.
The reforms will see a threshold of £100,000 on the amount of assets a person has before they have to fully fund their own care. Currently, the threshold is £23,250. From October 2023, anybody with financial assets lower than £20,000 will not have to pay anything for their care from their assets – but may have to contribute towards costs from their income. The amount anyone with assets between £20,000 and £100,000 will pay will be means-tested so the fewer financial assets someone has the less they will pay for their care. The amount anyone has to spend on care will be capped at £86,000 over their lifetime – including younger people receiving care.
At least £500m will be invested over three years to train care workers and provide professional development, fund mental health resources for staff and reform the social recruitment situation. Further detail on that will be published soon. The government has also promised to support the 5.4m unpaid carers, invest in the disabled facilities grant and supported housing, improve information to help understand options for care users and introduce a support system to ensure local authorities are delivering on their obligations to users.
The changes to social care only apply to England, but because tax changes apply to all four nations, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales will also see a rise in National Insurance payments. Mr Johnson said the devolved nations will together receive an extra £2.2bn a year towards health and social care – 15% more than they would from contributions by their citizens alone. A total of £1.1bn will go to Scotland in 2024-25, £700m to Wales and £400m on Northern Ireland.
To read more visit the Skynews website.
Dementia not Covid-19 was the greatest cause of death for women in 2020 – killing 45,922 women in England and Wales, official figures reveal.
Some 125 women are dying of dementia every day – that’s five women an hour, according to the Office for National Statistics.
In men, Covid caused the most deaths for men in England and Wales, followed by heart disease, after which dementia and Alzheimer’s disease came third by claiming the lives of over 24,000 men.
In the UK, dementia affects 850,000 people and there is no cure.
The number of people with dementia is set to triple in three decades, with 152 million estimated to be affected globally by 2050, according to research by the University of Washington School of Medicine.
The research was presented at the 2021 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Colorado at the end of July.
Dementia charities are calling for global action to fund research into a cure for dementia.
Hilary Evans, chief executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK has called dementia “our greatest long-term medical challenge”.
“With the number of people with dementia set to triple, we need to see concerted global action now.
“To safeguard progress and improve outcomes around the world, it’s vital our government invests to maintain the UK as a global hub for dementia research to safeguard research progress and improve outcomes around the world.”
This story was provided by homecare.co.uk
With fifty four per cent of over 60s feeling less confident attending a hospital appointment and almost six million feeling less confident going to a GP surgery than before the pandemic, Age UK worries how many people can “bounce back” from Covid-19.
Age UK says the impact of the pandemic on the health and wellbeing of some older people in early 2021 is so demonstrably severe it has left “deep physical and emotional scars” on the older population. The adverse effect may prove long lasting in many cases, or even irreversible, with big implications for the NHS and social care in the months and years to come.
Age UK who carried out the research during January and February 2021 also found nearly four and a half million people over 60 said they couldn’t walk as far with around four million people reported they were living in more physical pain.
For the full story visit the homecare.co.uk website
The government have announced their intention to make Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory for those working in care homes from the autumn.
There is currently a review of how to deal with care workers in the NHS and also in community settings with the requirement likely to be extended to these groups at either the same time or following closely on.
At Everycare we are pleased that all our home care staff who qualify for their vaccines have already had at least their first jab with the majority having had their second along with all our office staff.
