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Public sector pension schemes in Scotland
- Authors:
- AUDITOR GENERAL FOR SCOTLAND, ACCOUNTS COMMISSION
- Publisher:
- Audit Scotland
- Publication year:
- 2006
- Pagination:
- 24p.
- Place of publication:
- Edinburgh
This document looks at the main public sector pension schemes in Scotland, how they are funded and what challenges lie ahead in their management. It will be of interest to those who are responsible for public sector pensions, to those who fund them, and to pension scheme members. It does not cover the state pension scheme, private pensions or wider matters concerning retirement income.
The whole of society will benefit from social care reform: what would a lifetime cap on care costs mean for people in ‘red wall’ seats?
- Author:
- TALLACK Charles
- Publisher:
- Health Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2021
- Place of publication:
- London
Social care in England needs fixing. The current system is underfunded and needs more money supported by policy changes. But more fundamental reform of the way in which we pay for care is also needed. Currently, people are exposed to huge and unpredictable costs. The costs for those with the greatest needs can run into hundreds of thousands of pounds. Under the current system, less wealthy people are most at risk of losing almost everything. Someone with a house worth £125,000 needing 5 years in care could lose more than 80% of their wealth, compared with less than 50% for someone with a house worth twice that. People living in newly gained Conservative areas (the so-called ‘red wall’) are most affected because they have lower median house prices (£160,000), than in Labour-held constituencies (£190,000), or older Conservative seats (£270,000). A lifetime cap of £50,000 on the amount individuals pay for care would particularly benefit those in red wall seats. A cap is a vital element of social care reform, but alongside it, more money is needed to improve access to care, improve workforce pay and support a stronger market for providers. (Edited publisher abstract)
The value of investing in social care: what are the benefits of further funding for reform to adult social care in England?
- Authors:
- KING'S FUND, HEALTH FOUNDATION, NUFFIELD TRUST
- Publisher:
- King's Fund
- Publication year:
- 2021
- Pagination:
- 10
- Place of publication:
- London
In this briefing, the King’s Fund, the Health Foundation and Nuffield Trust have come together to set out the potential benefits of tackling challenges, and funding issues, of social care. The briefing looks at seven benefits of social care in England where there are opportunities offered by additional funding for further reform. It also puts forward key priorities for the government’s promised White Paper on adult social care reform. The benefits (and challenges) identified include: social care can enable people to live independent and fulfilling lives, but too few people have access to it; social care plays a significant role in local economies, but the sector urgently needs stability and the market needs further reform; social care provides skilled and fulfilling work for a large number of people, but they are currently not properly rewarded or developed; social care supports millions of family carers to improve the quality of their lives, but many still don’t have the help they need; social care is often rated well by regulators and people accessing care, but there are still too many poor-quality services; social care has developed improved approaches to care through innovation and technology, but funding pressures are limiting their spread; social care is a vital support to other public services like the NHS, but it must be properly funded for those services to fully benefit. The briefing calls on the government to increase access to care; better meet people’s needs and choices; develop a comprehensive workforce strategy; advance data collection and analytics; ensure the social care market can support innovation. (Edited publisher abstract)
An idea whose time has not yet come: Government positions on long term care funding in England since 1999
- Authors:
- POWELL Martin, HALL Patrick
- Journal article citation:
- Research Policy and Planning, 33(3), 2020, pp.137-150.
- Publisher:
- Social Services Research Group
This article seeks to explore ideas in Government Green Papers, and the Government appointed Commissions on Long Term Care funding since 1997 through the lens of the agenda-setting model of the Multiple Streams Approach. In particular, we examine the roles of ideas in the five major concepts of the model: the problem stream; the politics stream; the policy stream; the policy window; and the policy entrepreneur, for three key ‘moments’: the 1999 Royal Commission on Long Term Care for the Elderly, the 2009-10 Green and White Papers proposing a ‘National Care Service’, and the 2010-14 Dilnot Commission, White Paper, and the Care Act (Part 2). It is found that most of the documents discuss similar problems, similar policy options (although with different favoured options), and the need for some measure of political cross-party agreement (which has been undermined by cross-party sniping). However, the main obstacle seems to be perceived affordability. The efforts of the policy entrepreneurs have not, as yet, resulted in the policy window, ajar for over twenty years, being fully opened. In short, Long Term Care funding represents an idea whose time has not yet come, with discussions dominated by cost, meaning that the ideas have been on the agenda – but not seriously on the agenda. (Edited publisher abstract)
A delicate balance? Health and social care spending in Wales
- Authors:
- LUCHINSKAYA Daria, OGLE Joseph, TRICKEY Michael
- Publisher:
- Wales Public Services 2025
- Publication year:
- 2017
- Pagination:
- 24
- Place of publication:
- Cardiff
This briefing note looks at trends in public spending on health and local authority funded adult social care in Wales since 2009-10, with some comparisons with the other UK nations. It reports that the total health and social service spend per head in Wales was higher than that of England in 2015-16. Over the period 2009-10 to 2015-16, day-to-day spending on local authority-organised adult social services in Wales remained broadly flat in real terms, but the increasing over-65 population means that spending per older person has fallen by over 12% in real terms. The briefing concludes that spending may need to increase by at least £129 million (23%) between 2015-16 and 2020-21 to get back to the equivalent spend per-head in 2009-10, which amounts to a 2.5% year-on-year increase. (Edited publisher abstract)
Long-term care funding in England: an analysis of the costs and distributional effects of potential reforms
- Authors:
- HANCOCK Ruth, et al
- Publisher:
- University of Kent. Personal Social Services Research Unit
- Publication year:
- 2013
- Pagination:
- 13
- Place of publication:
- Canterbury
This paper examines projected costs and distributional effects of Government plans to reform the systems that determine how much the state contributes to people's long-term care costs compared with the current system. It also contrasts these costs and distributional effects with the central recommendation of the Commission on the Funding of Care and Support (Dilnot Commission) which was set up by the Government and reported in 2011. Two variants on the Government’s plans which would give additional help to recipients of residential care with capital below the proposed higher capital threshold are also considered. (Edited publisher abstract)
Paying for long-term care
- Authors:
- RODRIGUES Ricardo, SCHMIDT Andrea
- Publisher:
- European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research
- Publication year:
- 2010
- Pagination:
- 21p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- Vienna
The aim of this policy brief is to present information on the current picture of private and public expenditure on long-term care for older people, and to discuss the challenges of financing care. It describes the background context of demographic ageing across the European Union. It discusses public funding of long-term care, including the rationale behind public funding and the current picture of public expenditure, private funding arrangements and expenditure on long-term care, possible equality considerations of long-term care benefits and whether high income groups are more likely to receive home care. The authors conclude that despite concerns over the sustainability of long-term care systems, public resources devoted to this area of social policy are much lower than what is spent in other areas such as health or pensions, and that while there are several options available to provide those in need of care with the means to secure the care they require, policymakers should be aware of the potential inequalities associated with the different ways of financing and providing long-term care.
A "gloriously ordinary life": spotlight on adult social care
- Author:
- GREAT BRITAIN. Parliament. House of Lords. Adult Social Care Committee
- Publisher:
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords
- Publication year:
- 2022
- Pagination:
- 150
- Place of publication:
- London
In this report, we look at the reasons why adult social care as a whole has been invisible - poorly understood and often neglected by policy makers, the public and the media - and the impact that this has had, in particular, on disabled adults and older people, as well as unpaid carers. We have heard in the powerful and profoundly moving words of many witnesses in different situations, how this has affected them and their hopes and fears for the future. Our report is grounded in this reality. The changes we propose aim to bring increased voice, visibility, independence, choice and control, both to those who draw on care and those who provide it, paid and unpaid - enabling all of us to lead more ordinary, autonomous lives as equal citizens. The report sets out a new approach to adult social care which calls on the Government to commit to a more positive and resilient approach to adult social care based on greater visibility for the whole sector, as well as greater choice and control for disabled adults and older people and a better deal for unpaid carers. Recommendations include: make adult social care a national imperative, including by delivering realistic, predictable and long-term funding and delivering a properly resourced plan for supporting a highly valued workforce; prepare for the future by recognising that more people will be ageing without children and investing in better knowledge and data to inform better policy; ensure people who draw on social care have the same choice and control over their lives as everybody else; caring for unpaid carers by providing easier access to, and an increase in Carer's Allowance, more flexible support for carers who work, including the implementation of Carer's Leave, more support from health and social care professionals to identify them, signpost support, and ensure that they get it. (Edited publisher abstract)
Care report: tackling the care question: 2020
- Author:
- KEY
- Publisher:
- Key
- Publication year:
- 2020
- Pagination:
- 23
- Place of publication:
- Preston
This report explores social care funding and how local authorities meet the costs of providing adult social care. Between August 2019 and February 2020, the Key Group research team contacted over 200 councils across the UK to gain responses to a standardised set of questions. The tracking questions are the same as those asked in 2018/19 and provide a good view of how Councils are providing long term care services. In addition, research on 2,035 over-55s across the UK was used to track attitudes and options to paying for care. The study reveals a 10% year over year drop in number of people receiving long term care funding – data collected suggested that there could be as much as a 10% YOY drop in the number of people receiving some form of financial support for care between 2018/17 (568,867) and 2019/20 (512,816). Against this backdrop, consumer research found that over a third (35%) of over-55s are more worried than before about how to meet the cost of care in the future - a significant rise compared to 12 months ago when just a fifth (21%)2 were concerned. Just one in five (20%) over-55s have made some financial provision to pay for care if they need it. Even fewer people can pay for care without worrying – just 6% estimate they are wealthy enough to fund their own care, under half of the proportion compared to a year ago (13%). Around a third (29%) of over-55s now plan to use their homes to help them pay for care in the future (+10% from 19% in 2019). A quarter of people either don’t know how they would meet their care costs (15%) or wouldn’t be able to meet the costs (10%). One in 12 (8%) would have to sell any valuables they have to fund their care in 2020 – up three percentage points compared to 2019 (5%). (Edited publisher abstract)
Long-term care spending and hospital use among the older population in England
- Authors:
- CRAWFORD Rowena, STOYE George, ZARANKO Ben
- Publisher:
- Institute for Fiscal Studies
- Publication year:
- 2020
- Pagination:
- 51
- Place of publication:
- London
This paper examines the impact of changes in public long-term care spending on the use of public hospitals among the older population in England, and the cost and quality of this care. Mean per-person long-term care spending fell by 31% between 2009/10 and 2017/18 as part of a large austerity programme, but cuts varied considerably geographically. We instrument public long-term care spending with predicted spending based on historical national funding shares and national spending trends. We find public long-term care spending cuts led to substantial increases in the number of emergency department (ED) visits made by patients aged 65 and above, explaining between a quarter and a half of the growth in ED use among this population over this period. The effects are most pronounced among older people and those living in more deprived areas. This also resulted in an increase in 7-day ED revisits and emergency readmissions. However, there was no wider impact on inpatient or outpatient hospital use, and consequently little impact on overall public hospital costs. These results suggest that the austerity programme successfully reduced combined public spending on health and long-term care, but had adverse effects on the health of vulnerable users. (Edited publisher abstract)