Matt Hancock calls for end to social care funding ‘injustice’

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Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock has said pensioners should not be required to sell their homes to fund their care.

Mr Hancock called the current funding practices an “injustice”, The Daily Express reported.

Commenting on elderly people having to sell their homes to fund their care, Mr Hancock said: “I really don’t like that, I really don’t. So I completely understand why people worry about the threat of losing their home because of something they cannot do anything about.”

The Health and Social Care Secretary was speaking shortly having confirmed a further delay to the Social Care Green Paper due to Brexit negotiations (see Health Secretary confirms Green Paper Brexit delay).

Commenting further on the Green Paper delay, he added: “It’s such an important area. The thing about social care is, to get a sustainable solution, it needs cross party agreement, a bit like when you make big changes to pensions, and getting that sort of cross-party agreement when Brexit has been so alive has been really difficult. We need to take some of that partisan politicking out of social care to try and get a long-term solution.”

Tory MP Damian Green has proposed adopting a state pensions’ model for funding social care (see Tory MP, Damian Green, state pensions model for social care).

Chair of the Independent Care Group, Mike Padgham, said: “The cost of social care should be provided across the population through National insurance and tax, the same as the NHS.”

Caroline Abrahams, of Age UK, added: “Parting with your home or life savings in order to meet the cost of care is heartbreaking for many older people but too often there is no other choice.”

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