Economist to head LTC commission
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The Government has launched its commission on long-term care and appointed economist and broadcaster Andrew Dilnot as its chair.
The Commission on the Funding of Care and Support will look at funding ideas, including both voluntary ins-urance and partnership sch-emes, reporting within a year.
Two further commissioners have also been appointed - Lord Norman Warner and Dame Jo Williams.
Dilnot says: “There are not going to be any easy answers and I know difficult decisions will have to be made.”
Social Market Foundation social care expert James Lloyd says: “Reform of social care has long been debated and is long overdue but if the new commission were to rush out its findings, this would risk seeing it go the way of previous inquiries whose reports have never been acted on.”
Association of British Insurers director of general insurance and health Nick Starling says: “The insurance sector has a key role to play in the funding of long-term care and UK insurers stand ready to play their part in tackling this fundamental issue.”
Dilnot was director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and has been a member of the National Consumer Council. He has served on the retirement income inquiry, the Rowntree committee on the future costs of long-term care and the Ageing Population Foresight panel. He was also presenter of BBC Radio 4’s series More Or Less.
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Readers' comments (3)
Anonymous | 26 Jul 2010 8:23 am
When we thought we were addressing our retirement days when we were younger when we were asked to pay NI Stamp, it seems now that is not good enough... so will there ever be a system for the next generation to pay into or will they find like us that it doesn't work...
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Robert Lindley | 26 Jul 2010 10:13 am
NI Contributions have always just been another form of income tax but called something else. Otherwise we would all realise that we are actually paying a basic rate of income tax of more than 30% ! No government has ever properly addressed care for the elderly, and I find it duplicitous that they kept saying they were. Some of the more cynical amongst us realised this many years ago and started saving up early, in the full knowledge that the Government was lying, but the majority seem to have believed the Government. Now the concern is that the Government will steal the savings of the foreseeing prudent to pay for their mismanagement.
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John Annan | 26 Jul 2010 1:18 pm
In theory, I can't see much problem with the elderly funding their old age from the sale of their home or other assets although I have sympathy with the many who thought that their life long NI contributions would go towards this. The one big drawback is the loss of hope that it engenders in the elderly - there is no going back!
However, there is a fundamental problem with funding old age. This is; why bother to try? The poor get free care. Pension funds are raided and pensions shrink. Investments collapse. Costs of care skyrocket. If pensioners are to be fleeced of all their savings, few will bother to save.
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