Joseph Rowntree Foundation: Viewpoint
by Peter Beresford, Brunel University and Shaping Our Lives
March 2010
Funding social care: what service users say
Service users have not been adequately involved in discussions about the future funding of social care, yet they are the people most affected by these decisions. This Viewpoint reports the views of a diverse range of adult social care service users brought together to explore current proposals for funding social care.
Key Points
- Service users feel that, in general, the public do not understand what social care is or who pays for it. While supportive of service users’ needs being met, abstract concerns about public cost make it difficult to have a meaningful public debate about social care currently needed.
- Social care’s low political profile is linked with this lack of public understanding. Policy panic about the tax burden of an increasing elderly population means that service users are seen as a burden, ignoring the contribution they can make and undermining proposals to increase independence, choice and control.
- Service users feel that a false divide between social care and health care is perpetuated by conflicting funding arrangements.
- People do not generally want to live in residential care homes, yet nearly half a million people currently do. This is often presented as the only option, particularly for older people who need support.
- Almost all service users consulted think general taxation is the best way to fund social care. They do not see the options presented in the 2009 Green Paper Shaping the Future of Care Together as offering a viable or fair system.
- Political fears about raising taxes to cover social care do not take account of the ways in which properly funded social care support could prevent problems, reduce costs and enable people to contribute to society.
- Service users reject any withdrawal of existing universal disability benefits, such as the Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance, to fund means and needs tested social care.
- More open public debate is needed to work out what is wanted and how it should be funded. Service users call for discussions to be supported around the country to share and develop service users’ views and ideas about future social support.
Click here to download the full report published in March 2010 with full quotes
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