By Ann Widdecombe

Read original at: http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/ann-widdecombe/802563/ann-widdecombe-costs-cap-fix-social-care-system-nhs-crisis   

There may be sense in capping the amount the elderly have to pay towards their care but it is surely only an interim solution.

With rising longevity, ageing baby boomers and medical advances almost every week the state cannot truthfully give an indefinite pledge. We have seen where that leads with the NHS and the answer is to rationing, with the poor suffering most. 

No thanks. So what is the long-term answer? It is more than reasonable to expect the old to pay up if they can. Savings for a rainy day should be called upon when the rain pours and property is how most people save. 

The state has no duty to secure anybody’s inheritance. That however leaves a glaring inequality with those who have been prudent penalised and those who have been feckless rescued. 

Furthermore those who cannot pay are themselves divided into those who couldn’t save and those who wouldn’t. I suspect that in the end there will have to be some kind of compulsory insurance with those on benefit obliged to pay something as they were under the old poll tax arrangements, with benefits raised to take account of the necessity. 

Nevertheless I know from having been the minister in charge of elderly care 26 years ago that even then there was doubt that any scheme could cover the costs. 

So there will probably have to be a combination of cap, insurance and subsidy. Yet there is one other measure which would make an enormous difference. 

It was once the case – and still is in some countries – that the primary duty of care fell on the children, with the state stepping in only as a last resort. We may yet have to rediscover that model.

Read original at: http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/ann-widdecombe/802563/ann-widdecombe-costs-cap-fix-social-care-system-nhs-crisis