Charging for Personal Care

A few weeks ago I ran a blog item on the Lib Dem Council charging for personal care. I have a bit of an update on the hypocrisy that exists within the LibDems on this matter.

The proposal they are making is that those who currently receive personal care for very small charges would in future be means tested and a range of charges applied; up to 50% of disposable income. It is a monstrous suggestion. Made even more monstrous by the fact that the Lib Dems nationally are going round telling people they will not charge for personal care.

Charles Kennedy in a speech on public services on June 29th 2004 said:

"Yet when it comes to care of the elderly, Labour too support a right to charge. For the frail elderly in need of basic care: feeding, dressing, washing - for them dignity comes at a price. Dignity in old age should not be determined by the size of your bank balance. That is why Liberal Democrats would scrap the charges for personal care, wherever it is provided."

A Lib Dem MP, Sandra Gidley, and spokesman for Older people said:

"Britain's elderly should receive free personal care, unrestricted by discriminatory criteria."

Even the local MP, Ed Davey, said in January 2003:

"Personal care should be free on the basis of a person's need not the size of their bank balance. We are not talking about luxuries here: we are simply saying that for people who need this help, with feeding, dressing, washing and intimate care, it should be free at the point of delivery."

This is all great but why then is the Leader of the Lib Dems and the MP for Kingston & Surbiton allowing the Leader of Kingston Council to introduce this shameful policy of charging for personal care and letting him insult the elderly of Kingston who did the right thing and saved for their retirement:

"This isn't going to drive elderly people into poverty. You are not talking about the little old lady living in a rundown house. We are talking about people who are comfortably off and will still be comfortably off." Leader of Lib Dem Kingston Council in Surrey Comet

We will be doing all we can to get them to reverse this hypocrisy.