Elderly and disabled people in England are increasingly being denied social services, a report says.The Commission for Social Care Inspection said councils were tightening their criteria which determines who is eligible for care.
The watchdog said the situation meant there were 275,000 people in need of help receiving none while another 450,000 suffered shortfalls in care.
The BBC have on this topic run a 'have your say' section so people can put forward their thoughts. Most have complained that the government should do more to look after old people, and how they have paid their taxes etc.
While I think it's right people complain (and they should, to bring attention to such issues), from what I have read the problem from the post war years is that the proportion of the population that are elderly is increasing as we are leading longer lives with medical advances.
The big question seems to be - who should be responsible for looking after an individual when they reach an age when they cannot look after themselves? Should it be the state? Should it be their family? Or should they have saved over their lifetime to provide finance for their care in old age?
My own belief is that in the UK the great thing that is lacking is the saving mindset. Those that are financially successful longterm tend to have the saving mindset, and those that end up depending on state benefits tend (on average) to not be so good in this area.
For myself I have been lucky in this respect ... firstly for being brought up by my parents as a saver, and secondly having their financial support. I guess as everyone 'comes from somewhere' it makes it hard to have unbiased views on the topic. But objectively speaking I find it sad that some of my friends that run into financial difficulty, are in a sense 'addicted' to spending what money they do have.
Over a lifetime, in a vaguely capitalist system, I believe that people should be encouraged to save and build up their savings, so that they can form a buffer to look after themselves and their loved ones in difficult circumstances. The most unfortunate thing, coupled with the mindset problem mentioned earlier, is that governments (particularly the UK government) routinely penalize people for saving.
People who have very little and depend to a certain extent on extra benefits are hugely discouraged from saving. The moment they start to put away money each month for their longterm benefit, the government will correspondingly reduce any state benefits they receive (childcare etc). This means in practice that saved money is wasted money - the individual sees no advantage. Instead if someone has 200 pounds left over in any given month, they are better off spending it on a TV set or some asset, because this is not 'counted against' the individual in the decision as to state benefit rates.
Hence you get the bizarre situation where thousands of people living off benefits have council houses stocked up with the latest hi tech gadetry, playstation 3s, xbox 360s, plasma TVs, sky etc etc... to the extent that they have more gadetry than many middle income self supporting familys!! It is bizarre but makes total sense, given the benefit system.
Another example of such a problem is the situation faced by many single mothers. They can end up in a situation where financially they are better off not working, than working! Many examples I have found where single mothers do work, is not in order to increase income, but in order to feel as though they aren't dependent on a state handout. Indeed often until a single mother is earning quite a considerable amount (well over 20K) there is no significant financial benefit to working!!
While state benefits should provide a backup solution to help people in need, there is clearly something very broken in the UK system, where individuals see no personal advantage in getting themselves off the breadline. Capitalism works only when people will see a reward for their effort. If you want to get the millions on the breadline making some contribution to their own welfare, you simply have to make it worth their while.
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