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Proposal to help the elderly
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by YankeeJim | June 27, 2011 at 03:33 am
183 views | 2 Recommendations | 8 comments
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Beat them to death
Stop kicking the elderly before they kick the bucket.
The plan to take away 8% from those over 65 is cruel and unusual punishment. You may as well say take 10%.
What will it mean? In the winter, when the thermostat should read 40 degrees C it will read 36 degrees. I could add a sweater but the old one wore out and I can’t replace it. So, I might catch a cold.
Eat 8% fewer calories and travel 8% less. Don’t buy presents. What if I was already at the brink? 8% could push one over the edge.
Here is an idea, how about offering people an 8% reduction of taxes if they take on an elderly resident?
“Elderly 'facing cuts to care despite promises'
By Nick Triggle, Health correspondent, BBC News
Ministers are looking to revamp the social care system in England
Social care budgets for the elderly in England will be cut this year - despite promises to invest more cash, according to an analysis of spending plans.
The Age UK research, based on freedom of information data, suggested spending on the over-65s would drop by over 8%.
The charity predicted the impact of such a cut could be "devastating" as the system was already at crisis point.
Care services minister Paul Burstow questioned the figures, suggesting the situation was not as bad as claimed.
He acknowledged budgets were "under pressure" but said that did not always lead to a deterioration in care.
"While some councils may simply be cutting care, others are working hard to get more for less with innovative ways of delivering better care, including using more telecare and cutting needless admissions to hospital and residential care," said Mr Burstow.
The findings come after extra money was promised in the 2010 spending review.
Ministers said £2bn more would be invested in social care by 2015, with the first tranche coming this financial year.
This was earmarked for both elderly care and younger adults with disabilities.
Rationing
The promise came after the government had announced a review of the system amid evidence councils were having to ration care because of the increased demands being placed on services by an ageing population.
That review is due to publish its recommendations next Monday and pave the way for an overhaul of the means-tested system.
Social care has been struggling for funding in recent years with the overall budget only rising slightly above inflation.
“Start Quote
Funding for social care is already inadequate. The consequences of cutting expenditure further could be devastating”
Michelle MitchellAge UK
In recognition of the problems, the government said last year it would set aside some extra funds to help the system until any new arrangements were introduced.
But the Age UK research suggested that the money was not yet getting through to the frontline of elderly care.
It asked all 152 councils with responsibility for social care for data on their spending plans and service provision for the elderly for this financial year.
The charity received information on spending from 110 councils, which suggested the budget would be cut by 8.4% - equivalent to £610m.
It also received evidence councils were coping by taking measures such as reducing the number of care home places and hours of home help.
Michelle Mitchell, from Age UK, said: "Funding for social care is already inadequate. The consequences of cutting expenditure further could be devastating.
"We are fearful that even more vulnerable older people will be left to struggle alone and in some cases will be put at risk."
Councillor David Rogers, of the Local Government Association (LGA), pointed out while extra money had been promised by ministers for social care, it was being cancelled out by the wider cuts to local government - its budget from central government is being reduced by a quarter over the next four years.
"As the LGA warned last year, and this report backs up, government funding cuts have left councils with huge gaps in their adult social care budgets. Savings have to be found and tough decisions will have to be made in some areas."”
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YankeeJim
Arlington, Virginia, United States
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (8)
at 05:09 on June 27th, 2011
Elderly have too many fingers and toes. Take away 8%? Listen, all of you over the age of 65, you must decide which finger and which toe you are willing to forfeit. At this stage you don't need all of them. Sure, it will hurt for few days, but you'll get used to it. Come now, don't be shy. Most of you will pick the little finger and the little toe. Something must go.
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'thirty-aught-six" (not verified)at 11:52 on June 27th, 2011
Gotta pass that assisted suicide health plan sooner than later. :-)
at 12:31 on June 27th, 2011
Obviously, the minister has some inside information about seniors discount on tinned cat-food at Morrisons. Not only does it nearly taste like real meat (if you can get passed the smell), but it is guaranteed to give your elderly a shinier coat and whiter teeth! Or, if they lack teeth, it is soft enough to eat without dentures, which is good, because those damned things are costing too much.
Funding for seniors is a sore spot in most of the West these days. The social security plans that are in place are stretched to breaking point as it is, with more people drawing from them than paying into them. That is why governments throughout Europe have been increasing the retirement age. Either people in the west need to start reproducing more, so we have young people to pay into the programs, or we need to reindustrialize, and start making products that people want to buy, so our economies can stay afloats. In fact, probably both.
at 15:59 on June 27th, 2011
Sardine surprise
at 03:04 on June 28th, 2011
Serious problem..If we do away with all government programs such as social security, all government medical care assist programs, and all federal programs for helping elderly living assistance_see what happens then..
at 07:31 on June 28th, 2011
Agreed. But that means both that the Government needs to see the problems with that course of action, and sources of revenue to support the programs need to be found. Governments will always by nature try to pinch pennies, and line their own pockets while they can. Sadly, they cannot keep giving themselves fat paycheques AND support the elderly, sick, and or infirm with out more money coming in, which means more tax dollars. So either they raise taxes, encourage immigration, encourage people to have more than one or two children, and reindustrialize, so that people have jobs and income to be taxed. A nation cannot afford a social safety net off a shrinking work force predominately geared towards service industries, which is increasingly the case here in the West....
at 05:59 on June 29th, 2011
Their paychecks are trivial. It is a guns or butter argument.
at 09:13 on June 30th, 2011
Well, if that is the case, obviously guns are the way to go. With a gun, you can get the butter. It is not that unusual for firearms to be cheaper than food, globally at least. True, most of those places where this is the case are war-torn, fallen states, with corrupt governments and a high mortality rate... but the world is over populated anyhow, isn't it?