When listening to the Today Programme on Radio 4 during the week, the topic of social care and funding came up. The presenter began by using these very words "we are a rich country." Within a moment the red veil of anger descended, eyes rolled back and the persona of a pissed off person woke up the birth of my morning. Here is a fact we are not rich, we are a broken bankrupt country, but we just don't get it! As mentioned in other blogs, the UK is £1.6 trillion pounds in debt and this equates to a personal debt of £25,000 for every single man, woman and child. So to say we are a rich nation is a lie, to say we should be able to fund good social care for the elderly is a lie. It's not going to happen. In the mean time those elderly who get only the basic pension £155.60 per week and many will complain they are unable to make ends meet, yet those on basic Job Seekers Allowance (single adults over 25 years of age) get £72.40 per week, and Employment Support Allowance (paid to those with can't work because of a disability) begins at £73.10 and then depending on circumstances can move to £109.30, these figures are subject to change because each individual claimant has different circumstances and may actually qualify for other benefits. To put it simply those on subsistence level incomes provided by the state don't have a lot of money and are effectively living in poverty. It also means if they are not working or have some kind of other income they are likely not paying taxes, certainly not direct taxes. Indirect taxes will be paid and no one can get away from them. Therefore as the population ages and it is about to be a very elderly country, how is social care for the elderly going to be financed?
The Tory government have decided Local Authorities will fund social care for the elderly. Now it is necessary to understand what care is required and how much it is going to be. There are of course many different levels of social care. Some people like to be fearsomely independent, others have allowed themselves to become dependent, and others were just unfortunate to age badly and need help even though they would rather do it themselves. This is not just elderly for lets not think it is just elderly people who need care it is people of all ages. Some are disabled, some are mentally ill and some are just in the system when they shouldn't be. In the worse case scenario, an individual who lives in their own home and needs 24 hours of care a day to help them sleep, eat, drink, and move about will have a care bill of about £100,000. This is just one person, now throw in a few more and it is not long before this figure starts to reach the millions mark. Again this does not count those who require different levels of personal care. So it is a fact, social care is very expensive, but at the same time the country can not afford it. The country can not afford anything which is not contributing to reducing the national debt. The country can not afford bed blocking elderly people for the costs of an NHS bed and support is even more expensive than 24 hour care for someone bedridden in their own home. How can this government come to the conclusion increasing Council Tax by 6% over the next two years will pay for all the necessary care needed? It is a sticking plaster to a government which does not have any answers, a government which is proving to be incompetent on a daily basis.
What tests relationships and any personality is not when people live through good easy times, it is when they have to live through bad times. When they are confronted with a crisis, when responsibilities are piling up and pulling you left right and centre. When it is unrelenting and doesn't stop. It's the same for management of teams. When you have a great team of people who work hard then it's not necessary to actually tell them what to do, they will self organize and get on with it. They will support each other and management becomes easy. However, when your team is not a bunch of the sharpest tools in the box and the pressure is on, this is when management and personality come into play. Getting the best out of a bad team is about managing individuals and gaining each other's respect. It is more difficult than having an easy ride. Dealing with the least competent and bringing a fractious group together is real management and involves real skills.
What Local Authorities have just witnessed is the divergence of central government and worse still it is a Pontious Pilot washing of hands. If central government can defer responsibility to the LAs then it can justifiably say it was nothing to do with them. The Tory party can say they knew nothing, took no role in the collection of finances for social care and even say everything is fine. When it is not and more lies are fed to gullible people. Gullibility which is financed through media control and the best Tory owned media control as well. Local Authorities administer care for people in the community, they ensure carers are sent out, they keep an eye on finance and on quality. However, quality goes out of the window when costs go down. In an employers market then taking on carers to work in the community doesn't cost as much as qualified carers. People want jobs so it doesn't take much in the way of training to get them wiping arses, handling and moving people or making a sandwich. Caring has become a service industry with little in the way of standards. This is why the media is constantly full of horror stories. The government and LA's have been given no choice but to drive down caring costs as much as they possibly can. In doing so they help save tax payers money, because we are bankrupt. If the service users are affected by poor quality care then so what? It's cheap and at least they get a service. I bet there are Tory supporters who are even part of a Harold Shipman supporters club and secret thank the murdering bastard for reducing care costs.
Those who pay Council Tax are not all residents in a borough. For this tax is only paid by the persons named on the bill, usually the ones with the highest interest in a property or the one who is living and renting the property. So unfairly it is just council tax charge payers which now foot the bill. Some people may get benefits or exemptions or discounts from their charge so they don't have to pay the full bill or any of it. To try and pay for social care by using this only mechanism to finance it is a little like stirring a pot of soup with a single chop stick. It will be ineffective and was not made for the job. Just as the financing for the NHS is now at rock bottom in comparison of what it is expected to do and the number of users trying to access it. Like the deficit social care must be financed and like the deficit the two are inextricably linked. It's now time this government put into place real Tax gathering laws ones which will return finances back to helping the country grow and care and educate itself. Lets start by hitting the big fish, Amazon, Google, Starbucks to name a few, and any other business which views this country as a walk over. Unfortunately the Tories don't really give a shit, because lets face it they can afford the best care in the world but it doesn't matter about everyone else.
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