Paying for social care - good news or bad news?

Aren't the tories redesigning their manifesto over the weekend?
Even roses says it's no good!

Apparently it was drawn up without any consultation!!! So no one had bought into it.

It says everything about May's dreadful leadership and the weakness of the Tory members.

There is nothing eye catching about it except perhaps the social care and that has gone totally pear shaped.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-40058482

This will be a direct result of tory cuts to NHS, care and education budgets.
Anyone living in South West London, I would object if I were you.
There must be a way to object through autismuk.

First para of an article in this week Economist (hardly left wing) entitled "The four-day manifesto".

"Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed!" insisted Theresa May. But it had. Four days after the launch of the Conservatives' manifesto, on May 18th, the prime minister reversed its signature policy, a proposed reform of the funding system for social care for the elderly which has become known as the "dementia tax".

The article goes on to explain more about the tax and ends:

The social-care proposal is not the only part of the manifesto which looks a bit half-baked. There is no detail on the extent of the proposed cuts to winter-fuel allowance, which are supposed to fund social care. The manifesto is silent on plans for income tax (most people suspect that increases are on the way). And there is no acknowledgment that the pledge to cut net migration by nearly two-thirds would have big fiscal costs. It is a blank cheque from a party in little doubt that the public will sign it.

If that is what your more right-wing friends are saying about May and the Tories, no wonder other people are loosing faith in self-appointed as 'strong and stable' May.

So the way I've seen this debate about paying for social care for people with dementia is:

Some people think it is right for people who have dementia to pay for there own care, rather that increase NI or taxes for everybody else.

Other people would be o.k. with paying something towards the care of people who have dementia, in NI or tax, even if they never get it themselves.

Is that about right?

Yes cheese that about sums it up.

What I would add is that the policy as it stands (and that is questionable) is extremely short term as it doesn't address the next generation who are almost certainly less likely to own their own house. How is the state going to deal with their care? That is why for me NI is the way to go.

Well, you could say it sums it up except that many people may need care who do not have dementia but do not need hospital treatment.

Very true.

Do you think any politicians looks at this thread?

I would hope they were too busy.

Do you think any politicians looks at this thread?

I suppose it is possible that information might filter up NfkD. I had a lovely email in reply to a question I asked the LP and I had mentioned GN in my email to them. Enough mentions and they might decide to look I suppose. Mumsnet gets more publicity than we do though.

I do wonder sometimes if a junior researcher is allocated the job of scanning the GN political threads and sighing as he/she does so - "why is it always me that gets the Grannies?"

I don't think we are that important, Jalima.

I am still awaiting a reply from Ed Miliband from when he was Secretary of State for Energy; I emailed him three times.

I suppose it's time to give up now.

But we are durhamjen!!

Especially since we are the ones more likely to vote

I wrote letters to Alan Johnson whe he was secretary of state for health and my parents' MP over 20 years ago. Still waiting for a reply.

Sorry, ten years ago. Haven't waited as long as I thought!

That beats Miliband (somewhere between 2008 and 2010 apparently).

Do you think they've forgotten?

Johnson's given up being an MP now anyway. He's probably binned all the letters he hasn't answered.
I've moved on as well, literally as well as figuratively.
That's a thought. The response could be at one of three addresses since then!

I do wonder sometimes if a junior researcher is allocated the job of scanning the GN political threads and sighing as he/she does so - "why is it always me that gets the Grannies?"

Jalima

Even a junior researcher would be good. Hopefully they'd learn so much they'd soon be a senior researcher!

Talking about dropping the cap on social care, Jeremy Hunt said on BBC Radio 4 Today:

"Those costs get borne, and I'm quoting what I said, by taxpayer's families. Younger families,who are possibly themselves struggling to make ends meet. And what Theresa May is saying, is that it is not sustainable to fund a growing older population from the tax receipts from a shrinking younger population. It is not sustainable.It is not fair. That's why her solution is to say we're going to have to take some difficult decisions over things like the winter fuel allowance so we can get more money and make sure that every older person is treated with dignity and respect."

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/election-2017-40091449

@ 9.44

Ministers rarely answer directly. The protocol is to write to your MP and ask them to raise the issue with the minister. This is because MPs only deal directly with their own constituents. Otherwise people would shop around.
Mine gets about 500 letters a week. Many of them about bees.

How fascinatingly short sighted he is whitewave. Does he not realise we all get older?

So how should care of the elderly be funded? A simple question.