Free care plan for 65 and over leaves out working-age disabled adults

The free care promise leaves out around half of council spending on adult social care

Downing Street says what it calls free personal care, under the proposed National Care Service for England, will be available only to people aged 65 and over. It told Disability News Service (opens in a new tab) that working-age disabled adults are left out.

That puts a big part of adult social care outside the headline offer. Baroness Glenys Thornton, chair of the Social Care Institute for Excellence, says working-age adults account for around half of all local authority spending on adult social care (opens in a new tab).

Ministers have put any decision on charges for working-age disabled people off until Baroness Casey's commission reports. This announcement brings commissioners and providers supporting this group no new free personal care money.

This announcement brings no new money for working-age services

Ministers said Casey's social care commission is still developing recommendations covering everyone who needs care, including working-age adults. Proposals on charges for working-age disabled people are not expected until the commission publishes its final report next year. No firmer date has been set out.

Nothing in this announcement changes council budgets or fees for working-age disabled adults' care. Providers whose services mainly support younger disabled adults will find nothing here that changes their fee talks.

The gap may not last. The commission's remit does include working-age adults, and free care for older people is itself not due until the next parliament, so nobody gains anything tomorrow. But older people now have a promise, and working-age disabled adults have a review.

A third of users, with higher charges taken from benefits

Svetlana Kotova, director of campaigns and justice at Inclusion London, says working-age disabled people make up around a third of social care users (opens in a new tab) and face considerably higher charges than older people.

Fazilet Hadi, head of policy at Disability Rights UK, asked why concern about older people paying for care from their pensions was not matched by concern for working-age disabled people, whose charges come out of their benefits. She called the exclusion of disabled people's organisations from reform decisions wholly unacceptable.

After the speech, Downing Street said who the offer is for

Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced the National Care Service at Labour's conference in Liverpool. He described what he called free personal care delivered in people's own homes, paid for by changes to the state pension triple lock, with preparatory work starting now and the service itself coming in the next parliament.

His speech did not mention working-age disabled people. Downing Street's statement has now settled who the offer is for.

Two sets of rules by age, and one report to settle it

Downing Street says what it calls free personal care will be for people aged 65 and over (opens in a new tab). If the plan goes ahead that way, councils in England would run two sets of rules side by side: free personal care for older people, and charges as now for working-age disabled adults.

Ministers say proposals on those charges wait for the commission's final report. Casey's final report next year is the only place in sight where the care behind around half of council spending on adult social care gets an answer. Will it give one?