19 August 2005
The coalition of charities acting on behalf of older people has reacted angrily to the government's watering down of the Office of Fair Trading's recommendations to give elderly care home residents a better deal.
Older people with assets or savings over £25,500 must currently fund and organise their own residential care rather than have their local authorities sort out their contracts.
The OFT recommended that the government should ensure self-funded residential care users have access to the same 'assistance' as local authority-funded residents.
The government's response interprets 'assistance' to only mean 'advice'.
The Social Policy Ageing Information Network (Spain) said this could lead to a situation where private care homes were able to distinguish between residents who have assets and those who do not, and could exploitatively raise their fees accordingly.
'It actually means that residents can't keep financial information confidential,' said Pauline Thompson, a policy adviser at Age Concern and Spain spokeswoman.
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