Recent news headlines have reported dementia is the leading cause of death in the UK.
Dr Clare Walton from the Alzheimer’s Society research team looked at the reasons why deaths from dementia are on the rise and how the numbers compare with deaths due to other major diseases.
The latest death statistics for England and Wales, released by The Office for National Statistics (ONS), showed the number of people dying of dementia is steadily increasing year on year.
In contrast, the number of people dying from heart disease and stroke has been declining. In 2015, dementia overtook heart disease and stroke as the UK’s biggest cause of death. The percentage of all UK deaths from the top four leading causes in 2017 were dementia, heart disease, stroke and lung cancer.
National Insurance will be increased to pay for care, with new asset thresholds determining how much people pay and a cap on how much people will have to spend during their lifetimes.
Boris Johnson has announced a major shake-up of social care funding in England.
A hike in National Insurance will pay for a pledge made when Mr Johnson became prime minister in 2019 to “fix the broken care system”. However, this means he will be breaking his promise to not raise taxes, which has angered Tory backbenchers. Mr Johnson said he was unable to keep that promise due to the COVID pandemic.
What are the changes to social care?
Social care supports the elderly and disabled adults of all ages with non-clinical needs in people’s own homes, residential care homes or in places such as day centres or supported housing.
Unlike the NHS, it has no dedicated funding and is paid for through local authorities.
The reforms will see a threshold of £100,000 on the amount of assets a person has before they have to fully fund their own care. Currently, the threshold is £23,250. From October 2023, anybody with financial assets lower than £20,000 will not have to pay anything for their care from their assets – but may have to contribute towards costs from their income. The amount anyone with assets between £20,000 and £100,000 will pay will be means-tested so the fewer financial assets someone has the less they will pay for their care. The amount anyone has to spend on care will be capped at £86,000 over their lifetime – including younger people receiving care.
At least £500m will be invested over three years to train care workers and provide professional development, fund mental health resources for staff and reform the social recruitment situation. Further detail on that will be published soon. The government has also promised to support the 5.4m unpaid carers, invest in the disabled facilities grant and supported housing, improve information to help understand options for care users and introduce a support system to ensure local authorities are delivering on their obligations to users.
The changes to social care only apply to England, but because tax changes apply to all four nations, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales will also see a rise in National Insurance payments. Mr Johnson said the devolved nations will together receive an extra £2.2bn a year towards health and social care – 15% more than they would from contributions by their citizens alone. A total of £1.1bn will go to Scotland in 2024-25, £700m to Wales and £400m on Northern Ireland.
To read more visit the Skynews website.
A petrol station owner is giving priority fuel access to care workers, after the petrol crisis left care staff desperate to fuel their cars to avoid missing home care visits with people who cannot get out of bed, feed themselves or go to the toilet on their own.
While some care workers considered staying overnight with people needing home care as petrol station forecourts ran empty on fuel, the owner of a BP Royal Garage in Huthwaite has agreed to give a priority service to NHS and social care workers after he was approached by home care provider Your Home Care.
Petrol station owner: ‘Home care workers need to get to work’
Sivapalan Krishanand (aka Kris) has agreed to offer exclusive time slots to health and social care workers between 6am-7am and 9.30pm-10.30pm every day until the fuel crisis subsides. Care workers will need to show ID badges before they can buy the fuel.
Krishanand said: “I am pleased to be able to help. Home care workers need to get to work and so this is our small way of helping out.”
To read the full story visit the homecare.co.uk website
