Older people left to fend for themselves as public services 'disintegrate'

Age UK has revealed that too many older people are struggling at home as the public services on which they rely on are becoming increasingly withdrawn.

The charity has urged the Government to invest in the local services that support older people to remain as independent and resilient as possible, in its forthcoming Spending Review.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: “Talk to any doctor, paramedic or ambulance driver and you hear the same story: they are seeing increasing numbers of older people, many living alone, who are not being looked after properly at home and who are having to come into hospital, partly because of the lack of care and support for them in the community.

“When these older people are in hospital and their need for more support at home becomes clear, there is a shortage of resources in councils to do much about it.

“The result is that older people are frequently staying in hospital for longer than their medical condition requires, while hospital staff wrestle with the problem of how they can safely discharge them.”

Ms Abrahams continued: “Lingering for a long time in hospital undermines older people’s resilience and makes it harder for them to make a full recovery, jeopardising their capacity to live independently at home.

“These miserable situations are happening every minute of every day, right round the country. We are letting older people down in this way because the safety net of community services is becoming more and more threadbare, due to Government cuts to councils.

“This is also draining the energy and resolve of hospital staff, because hospitals are ‘the last refuge’ where increasing number of older people are ending up, as other services decline.”

Age UK’s recent report titled, ‘Agenda for Later Life’ has revealed the challenges older people are currently facing.

The report highlighted that too many older people, who find it difficult to cope at home, are being left to fend for themselves due to Government cuts on public services; almost £2 billion in the last ten years.

In addition, it was revealed that while many areas of life for older people have improved – including digital inclusion and employment – progression in health, care and well-being has stalled.

Older people who require help to manage at home are increasingly having to look after themselves, with the numbers of carers aged 85 and over more than doubling over a ten year period, with one in twenty people aged 65 and over currently caring full-time (at least 50 hours a week).

According to Age UK, over one million older people said they are ‘often or always lonely’, up from 770,000 in last year’s report.

Similarly, 24 per cent of pensioners said that they do not go out socially at least once a month.

With mounting pressures on council budgets, Age UK’s concern is a predicted council funding gap of £6 billion by 2016 to 2017. This, coupled with pressure on community and primary health care budgets, could undermine the support systems designed to protect older people, including social care and adult safeguarding.

Ms Abrahams added: “The Government must pledge to fund councils to rebuild the local safety net for older people, as part of the Spending Review later this month. Older people need this to happen and it is increasingly obvious that our hospitals need it just as much too.”