Jayne Dowle: Help our elderly people... by looking closer to home

The only thing I know for sure about this lady is that she used to enjoy pottering about with her flowers. If I’m feeling a little melancholy I wonder if this will be me in years to come. Should I be left on my own, with partner gone before me and children flown the nest, will there be anyone to look after me at all?

Sorry to bring you down on a Monday morning, but none of us are getting any younger. If we don’t, as a nation, tackle the crisis that is the long-term funding and provision of social care for the elderly now, we all face an uncertain and possibly lonely and painful old age.

It’s the problem staring us all in the face. Report after report, survey after survey, tell the same story. And now a new poll, carried out by older people’s charity Independent Age, finds that nine out of 10 MPs do not believe that the current social care system is fit for purpose. That’s a pretty overwhelming majority. Yet political leaders and policy-makers so far seem unable to come up with any kind of coherent plan.

OK, so Prime Minister Theresa May has recently promised a consultation on adult social care and the Department of Health has earmarked the sum of £2bn to plug the funding gap right now. However, what is needed is a root-and-branch re-assessment. And it should be a cross-party matter. It’s that important. For too long, social care has been held as a hostage to political fortunes. Ensuring our most vulnerable citizens are looked after with dignity is far more important than scoring points across the House of Commons.

My answer is simple. Perhaps it’s too simple, but here goes. Above all, I would concentrate on how families can look after themselves. It worked in the past. Why shouldn’t it work now? Here we have to bust a myth or two. And quash the stigma about looking after our own kin.

I know that many families are scattered; the demands of modern life and a more mobile population make it so. However, I would argue that there are just as many families which remain relatively close-knit and want to look after each other. Dare I even suggest that in our region, Yorkshire, we are particularly blessed?

In these families, countless individuals are trying their best to take care of older and vulnerable relatives without the practical and financial help they need. And let’s not forget compassionate neighbours and friends too.

Almost always though, such arrangements are woefully piecemeal, badly-supported and under-funded. So why not raise Carers’ Allowance from the paltry sum of £61.35 a week and make the qualification for it less financially ruinous? As it stands, if you earn more than £110 a week, you can’t claim it. Effectively, although you might be holding down a job and paying taxes, you’re punished.

I’ve known friends who have given up work for this. They lose earnings, sacrifice their own pension contributions and put public funds under further strain, because their financial circumstances push them into reliance on other benefits to survive. How illogical is that?

I am sure many, many people would take the decision to care for their mother, father or grandmother full-time if it was financially viable. Why not afford this kind of commitment the same standing as foster care for children and young people? Offer a decent living allowance comparable to at least the minimum wage and I promise you there would be a revolution in the way our elderly people are looked after in this country.

Yes, I know there would be the unscrupulous who might take advantage of such financial reward. However, as the stringent tests for disability benefits prove, there are certainly ways of finding out. And of course, kind and well-meaning care from a friend or family member can only go so far. There are cases, such as the onset of dementia, when specialist help or residential facilities are needed.

Family care should never be regarded as a substitute for professional input. There will be circumstances when the two might run in tandem, for instance with acute personal hygiene needs, or physiotherapy. It would however, go a long way towards a kinder and more dignified existence. And it would relieve the pressure on local councils and private care providers who simply can’t cope with the sheer numbers of those who need looking after.

Clearly, not every elderly person is lucky enough to have people close by who care enough to care for them. However, those who do could be helped in so many ways, if only those who have the power to make a difference chose to look closer to home.