Thousands of disabled people failed by government’s ‘culture of indifference’, report finds.

MPs condemn DWP’s ‘failure’ to act on ‘unacceptable and entirely avoidable’ underpayment error which saw sick and disabled people miss out on thousands of pounds.

The government has been accused of presiding over a “culture of indifference” in its handling of a major change in its disability benefits scheme, which has seen vulnerable people miss out on thousands of pounds.

A group of influential MPs said the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had failed to act on warnings that it was underpaying an estimated 70,000 people who transferred to employment and support allowance (ESA) from other benefits over seven years.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the “unacceptable and entirely avoidable” situation stemmed from multiple failures by the department, including not listening to what claimants, experts, support organisations and even its own staff were saying.

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Japan has long been known for its widespread respect for its seniors and a powerful sense of obligation to care for them. The involvement and responsibility of the family members in care was even formally embodied in the “Japanese style welfare state”.

Yet as the demographic structure of society has changed, and the population has progressively aged – Japan now has the oldest population in the world – the provision of care is increasingly seen as a social (and not exclusively a family) concern.

The Japanese government has developed an incredibly comprehensive and thoughtful late life care plan.

Conversely in the UK, social care has been affected by a range of funding cuts to local budgets since 2010, which has increased pressure on the social care system. The situation is further compounded by a gradually ageing population. In Japan in 2016, those aged over 65 comprised 26.5 per cent of the population; in the UK it was 18.4 per cent.

To read more about the social care model in Japan visit The Independent website.

Councils across the UK are buying vital home help for elderly people on the cheap, the firms providing care say.

Thousands of vulnerable older people rely on councils to organise support for them for daily tasks such as washing, dressing and feeding. Research by the UK Homecare Association found only one in seven was paying a fair price for care.

UKHCA policy and campaigns director Colin Angel accused councils of buying care “on the cheap”. He said it was forcing a number of providers to hand back contracts or refuse to take them on as the prices did not cover “adequate wages and the costs of running safe and effective services”. He said that was having an impact on recruitment and retention and forcing services to cut back on the number and length of visits.

It said this meant visits were being cut short, but councils said they had insufficient money to pay more.

What did the research find?

More than 850,000 people are given support in their own home.

About 80% of this is organised by councils, which normally outsource the work to care agencies.

The UKHCA, the umbrella group for care firms, asked more than 200 councils and care trusts for information about how much they paid for care.

The average fee was £16.12 an hour, although in some places it was below £13.

The UKHCA said the minimum price was £18.01, once factoring in the cost of running the services and the wages for the care worker was considered.

Regionally in England, councils in the north-west and north-east had the lowest rates, while nationally in the UK, Northern Ireland paid the least.

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The National Audit Office has called for immediate action describing the social care system in the UK as in a dire state due to severe staff shortages exacerbated by cuts and the impact of Brexit.

More than a million vulnerable elderly people are missing out on help they need the UK’s spending watchdog has said.

The National Audit Office (NAO) called for urgent action as it published a detailed report citing evidence showing the number of people over 65 with unmet care needs jumped by some 200,000 in the last year alone. The body said a spiralling turnover of poorly paid staff and increasing job vacancies are at the root of the problem, which is being worsened by ongoing deep cuts and fewer employees from the European Union since Brexit.

To read more about this story visit The Independent website.