Free social care is set to be introduced – but only for those aged over 65 – the government has confirmed following a speech by Labour’s Andy Burnham, prompting concern among disabled people’s organisations (DPOs).
Focus on Older People in National Care Service Plans
At Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool, Burnham spoke passionately about a “person-centred, high-quality care service that starts in the home” and is “free at the point of use”. He pledged to begin laying the groundwork for a National Care Service to be introduced in the next parliament, describing the initiative as providing “peace of mind over care needs in later life”.
However, the prime minister’s repeated focus on older people, rather than disabled people of working age, raised immediate concerns among DPOs. Burnham mentioned plans to fund the service through alterations to the state pension “triple lock” – a move the government confirmed later the same day.
Clarification from Government: Free Personal Care Limited to Over-65s
After queries from Disability News Service (DNS), Downing Street clarified that free personal care announced by Burnham would only apply to those over 65. Any reforms to address the social care charges and crises faced by working-age disabled people will be considered only after the final report from Baroness Casey’s social care commission next year.
A government spokesperson said: “We have set out a new settlement for older people which will deliver free personal care and a state pension that rises every year, giving peace of mind in later life. This is a core part of our vision for the National Care Service and will draw a line under decades of drift so that people can receive the dignity and security they need.”
The spokesperson added that Baroness Casey’s commission remains actively working on recommendations to improve the social care system for all, including working-age adults.
Disabled People’s Organisations Express Shock and Frustration
The announcement provoked dismay among campaigners. Svetlana Kotova, director of campaigns and justice at Inclusion London, stated: “We welcome the prime minister’s vision of a person-centred, high-quality, free-at-the-point-of-use care service that starts in people’s homes. However, we are shocked and disappointed that the vision of a National Care Service does not include disabled people of working age, who make up one third of social care users and who are facing much harsher charges compared to older people.”
Kotova emphasised that there is no justification for limiting support by age. “Everyone who needs care and support should have a right to live independently in the community, regardless of their age, as outlined in the UNCRPD [the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities],” she said. She urged Burnham and Baroness Casey to engage meaningfully with disabled people and their organisations to build a National Care Service that goes beyond basic personal care.
Fazilet Hadi, head of policy for Disability Rights UK, also welcomed the commitment to a National Care Service but questioned the focus on older disabled people alone. “Why is the spotlight solely on older disabled people?” she asked. “Why is there concern about older disabled people paying for care from their state pension but no similar concern relating to disabled people of working age having ever-increasing charges taken from benefit payments?”
Hadi criticised the paternalistic tone of Burnham’s speech. “Don’t disabled people, young and old, have a right to more than receiving personal care? Don’t we have the right to live with dignity, independence, choice and control?” she said. She also voiced frustration about the exclusion of disabled people’s organisations from decision-making processes surrounding social care reform, calling the Casey Commission’s “big conversation” a failure to fully include disabled people.
Calls for a National Independent Living Service and Upcoming Protests
Earlier in the week, Sophia Kleanthous, policy and campaigns officer at Disability Rights UK, told a fringe meeting hosted by the New Statesman and the Free Home Care campaign at Labour’s conference: “We really need a system-level approach to making sure that choice, control and independence is at the heart of our care system… it needs to be co-produced with and by disabled people.”
She criticised the sidelining of disabled people’s organisations by Baroness Casey and called for a new National Independent Living Service (NILS) that is free at the point of need and developed alongside the NHS.
Meanwhile, Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) has announced a protest outside No 10 North in Manchester on 4 December. This date coincides with almost 20 years since the UNCRPD was adopted and follows the international day of disabled people. DPAC plans to campaign for a NILS designed in genuine co-production with disabled people, criticising the current social care system as “broken beyond repair”.
The protest will call for the scrapping of Baroness Casey’s commission and for UK law to implement UNCRPD’s Article 19, which recognises disabled people’s right to independent living. DPAC has launched a crowdfunder to support this demonstration and other activism aimed at highlighting how successive governments, since signing the convention, have systematically eroded disabled people’s rights and standards of living.
Linda Burnip, co-founder of DPAC, said: “It is shocking that a Labour government continues to slash our rights, putting us at risk of destitution, imprisonment in our own homes or care homes, and even of more unnecessary deaths.”
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