Social care has failed to get a mention, in detail, in the recent run up to the election. This could be as a result of the impact such policies have had on campaigns in the past such as the ‘death tax’ and ‘dementia tax’ which proved to be damaging to respective campaigns run by Gordon Brown and Theresa May in the recent past.
To date we have heard of Labour’s intention to introduce free personal care for the elderly which will double the number of people receiving state funding for personal care but this doesn’t address the wider need for social care reform. We have also heard of the Liberal Democrats’ proposal to increase income tax by a penny to pay for NHS and social care which is likely to raise a similar figure to that proposed by Labour – but is intended to address the NHS as well as social care and a distinction hasn’t been made between the two. The Tories have as yet not mentioned any plans for social care in the lead up to the election and instead are focused on ensuring that Brexit is done and will turn their focus elsewhere following the completion of this goal.