Government to unveil plans for 'National Care Service'

Health Secretary Andy Burnham today called for an end to the "cruel lottery" facing people in old age as the Government set out proposals for a new national care service for the ageing population.

Mr Burnham said care of the elderly should be a "priority issue" and there should be a "fair and universal" system in place.

"We have an ageing society and it is a cruel lottery - some people end up paying lots of money in their later years to look after parents and some 50% of us end up paying more than £25,000 every year," he told GMTV.

"A very small number, particularly those who develop say something like Alzheimer's, can pay up towards £200,000 over their lifetimes."

The new national care service forms the centrepiece of a long-awaited Green Paper on social care, drawn up as ministers struggle to prevent public finances being overwhelmed by the demands of the UK's ageing population.

Asked why action had not been taken sooner, Mr Burnham said the Government had increased the amount of funding for social care by around 40%.

He added that a system of "direct payments" had also been introduced to allow people to buy services tailored to their individual needs.

But he said: "I accept this is a difficult debate and perhaps we should have grasped this nettle sooner. But today we are putting some very radical proposals on the table."

Asked when the point would be reached where we "won't have to expect our parents to sell their homes to pay for their care", Mr Burnham said: "For me, I think that is the clear objective here.

"If we can get to a system that is fair and universal, that doesn't put pressure on people to do that, then that is a huge step forward."

Care for the ageing population should be a major issue of political and public debate and needed to be a priority issue after the next election, he said.

"What we can't do is just ignore it," he said.

He added: "I am very clear that it is right - although it is difficult - to raise this debate, because we do not want to see a country where we are just not looking after our older people and every year the standards of care for older people are going down and down, we have got to reverse that trend.

"And we have got to end the cruel lottery with people selling their homes."

The Government has said it wants to introduce a "minimum care entitlement", which would smooth out the postcode lottery.

The document will outline a series of different options for funding the scheme, which could include a levy on people's estates after death.

Another suggestion is for every elderly person to contribute up to £20,000.

With the cost of care for some currently reaching £200,000, ministers believe this would give people more certainty over how much money they need to save.

There are now more pensioners than children in Britain, and the burden on workers to cover state pensions and health care costs will increase.

It is estimated that unless urgent action is taken, there will be a £6 billion black hole in the funding of social care within 20 years.

The Government signalled yesterday that the legal retirement age of 65 is set to be scrapped or raised, allowing people to work for longer if they want to.

The age from which the state pension is payable is also due to rise to 68 for both sexes by 2046.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley accused the Government of failing to come up with the firm proposals it promised a year ago.

"The important thing in this is that we need to create a sufficient number of people who are making provision in advance themselves for that risk pool to be created," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"The Government needed today to come up with costed proposals that allow that work to be done.

"If they don't do that, we will come forward with our own proposals before the election in order to set out what we intend to do because, quite clearly, the Government have shifted into a further round of rhetoric and debate when actually what the social care system desperately needs is a level of clarity about what the future funding of long-term social care looks like."