The sufferers forced to pay

However, while many areas of officialdom struggle to recognise this fact, judging from the way in which the present system allows victims to run up thousands of pounds in 
care bills, the criminal classes have been only too quick to recognise the vulnerability of Alzheimer’s sufferers.

As reported earlier this year, an organised network of rogue traders is busy exchanging the names and addresses of people afflicted with Alzheimer’s, with people living alone in the front line of those to be targeted.

Yet now, because of the way in which social services budgets are being cut, it is feared that dementia sufferers will be left even more vulnerable, frequently lacking any support or care.

According to the Alzheimer’s Society, a £1bn gap in social-care funding is approaching, as funds are cut at the same time as the number of elderly people is rapidly increasing.

Yet the root of the problem, surely, is the sheer unfairness of this so-called dementia tax, with Alzheimer’s victims being categorised as in need of means-tested social care, rather than free NHS care, even though Alzheimer’s has long been recognised as a disease of the brain.

This arbitrary distinction has meant that, long before rogue traders tried to take advantage of the situation, sufferers with assets of more than £23,250 were paying out vast sums for personal care, even though this should clearly be the responsibility of the NHS.

And while some NHS funds are available to help those living at home, the reality is that dementia victims frequently have great difficulty in accessing this money.

The Government’s plans to cap care costs from 2016 will, of course, go some way towards remedying this situation. But the truth of the matter is that Alzheimer’s victims should not be at the mercy of social services budgets any more than they should be prey to rogue traders.