Political storm surrounds delayed social care Green Paper

A political storm has blown up around the long-awaited Government Green Paper on the reform of social care funding – and publication has been delayed once again. The Paper is now expected on 14 July. The latest delay is allegedly the result of a Whitehall row over some of the proposals made in the Paper, which it is feared could be viewed by the public as a tax raid. A particular area of contention is a proposal which plans to abolish two benefits that can be claimed by disabled people – Attendance Allowance and Disability Allowance – and which are worth £10 billion per year to claimants. These non means-tested benefits, which are available to anyone who meets certain disability criteria, would be replaced by a discretionary social care grant for those that are most in need. If this proposal goes ahead, the move will represent a retraction of the Government’s statement in the 2008 ‘Cause for Change’ document that ‘any changes that emerge (from the Green Paper) will not affect existing benefit recipients.’ Fears over reactions from the public and from charities supporting the rights of disabled and elderly people are believed to have caused the Paper’s publication to be blocked by work and pensions secretary Yvette Cooper.

Both the Green Paper itself and the inability of new health secretary Andy Burnham to force its publication have attracted heavy criticism from the Conservative party, which is planning its own reforms for social care funding should it succeed in the 2010 general election. Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley comments: ‘Unlike the government, we will set out a clear plan for change for both the providers of social care and the 45,000 people who are forced to sell their homes every year to pay for it.’

The key aims of the Green Paper are to reform social care funding in ways that make the funding system more efficient and fairer for everyone that uses it. Allan Bowman of the Social Care Institute for Excellence comments on these goals: ‘We've got to end this postcode lottery in social care and we've got to find a way of achieving a national approach, that ensures people get the best quality of care at whatever fair price can be achieved.’