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Tories reject 'myth' of cradle to grave welfare
By: Lucy Ward
The Guardian, March 7, 2001
The Conservatives yesterday underlined their belief that the cradle to grave welfare system is gone for ever with proposals to encourage people to make their own provision for care in old age.
The shadow health secretary, Liam Fox, said that those who took out insurance for long term care costs would have "some of their assets" protected rather than being taken by the state to cover expenses. Families who took responsibility for care of elderly relatives would be rewarded with tax breaks, Dr Fox told the right-leaning Politeia think tank.
The proposals, condemned by Labour as covert privatisation of health and social care, underline Tory determination to use the tax system to shift responsibilities from the state to individuals.
Dr Fox said that 160,000 elderly people had been forced to sell their homes under the four years of Labour government to finance long term care under a policy that penalised thrift. "They believed the myth of cradle to grave welfare," he said. "People working today need to be encouraged to make more financial preparations for their later years in order not to repeat the experience of many current pensioners and put all their eggs in the state's basket."
Those who insured themselves would be expected to meet bills of up to around £20,000, but would then have all costs picked up by the state, leaving assets to be handed on to relatives, Tory sources said last night.
The Conservatives are attempting to exploit controversy over government plans on long term care, which will see a new division between nursing and personal care. Under the reforms, nursing care for the elderly will for the first time be free in care homes - a policy the Tories intend to maintain - but residents in England and Wales will continue to have to pay their own personal care costs, such as bathing, dressing and feeding.
In Scotland, where the Liberal Democrats share power with Labour, both personal and nursing care costs will be free, in line with national Lib Dem policy and with the recommendations of the government's own royal commission on long term care.
Campaigners for the elderly, who have condemned the government's decision not to make personal care free, last night questioned the Tory scheme. Tessa Harding, head of policy at Age Concern, said care insurance was "not viable for most people because of the cost and the difficulty of finding a policy to cover an unknown future". |
