Care for the elderly is a priority for Gordon Brown. He is set to announce that Labour will prioritise free care at home for 280 000 people if they win the next election. I don't know what this means. I think the number is based on frailest come first but I don't know what constitutes frailty and I don't know the cut off point. Wouldn't it be nice to know that if you can only walk 20 yards you get benefit but if you can walk 30 yards you don't.
The biggest problem for me is that we already have a culture of the elderly sitting at home in their coats so that the heating doesn't have to go on. You can almost see the image of the elderly being dragged out of their homes because they would have to pay if they needed to stay in a care home. Luckily these people would be frail.
Headlines are often made when houses are lost to pay for care. We will still be faced with these headlines, maybe not for the frail at home, but with the more frail in care homes. According to Mr Brown, how a country looks after its elderly is a "hallmark of a civilized society".Then why is England so far behind Scotland?
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Today there is criticism from the Labour benches regarding the care for the most frail who need care homes. In their defence the government mention their selling point of helping 400,000 people in their own home. Why did they say 280,000 two days ago? Who knows, in a week everyone may be have their care paid.
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