'People back fairer elderly care'

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A nine-month consultation by the Caring Choices initiative found that both care receivers and providers were unhappy with the inequalities and complexity of the current system.

The resulting report, The Future Of Care Funding: Time For A Change, aims to shape the agenda of future Government reform and clarify the state of the care system in the UK.

Led by the King's Fund, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Help the Aged and Age Concern, the initiative found broad agreement that more money will be required to meet the needs of the UK's ageing population in the future.

Nine in 10 participants in the consultation supported a system in which everyone receives some contribution from the state, but only 20% agreed that all costs of care should be met by the Government.

Instead, most were in favour of a system of co-payments, in which a care package would be mainly paid for by the state, with a fixed percentage contribution from the user.

The number of older people requiring care is set to rise by 50% between 2002 and 2026, a burden which currently falls mainly on care users and their families.

The 'postcode lottery', resulting in different entitlements for people in different areas, and the high level of means testing received particular criticism in the report.

It also highlighted strong resentment from unpaid family carers, who pushed for more generous respite care and Carer's Allowance.

Julia Unwin, director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: "At present many older people and carers feel unsupported by a system that all too often seems to be working against them, rather than giving them essential support at a time of their life when they are at their most vulnerable."