LibDems outline £2bn elderly care plan

Updated 13.23 Tue Jan 22 2008

Keywords: Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats have unveiled a £2 billion plan to guarantee free personal care for the elderly.

LibDem leader Nick Clegg said the extra cash would be used to ensure a minimum level of care is based purely on need, rather than ability to pay.

"The battle for extra investment has largely been won, but the service we're getting is simply not good enough" - Nick Clegg

The proposal - styled as a "care guarantee" - will be put to the Lib Dems' spring conference in March. It aims to reduce the need for means-tested people to sell their homes to pay for care in their later years.

On a visit to an activity centre run by Age Concern Kingston in southwest London, Mr Clegg said: "We are the first party with serious plans to end the punishing poverty which afflicts the many elderly people forced to pay for their personal care entirely out of their own pockets."

Other proposals outlined included a new "patient contract" promising NHS healthcare within a certain timeframe - provided, if necessary, by the private sector.

Mr Clegg also wants to introduce directly-elected local health boards to make NHS bosses more accountable to patients.

And he intends to give patients more control over their own care with the extension of direct payments and individual budgets to help people with chronic, long-term conditions, mental health problems and learning disabilities.

Mr Clegg continued: "I am calling for a people's health service which puts individuals in the driving seat of their own healthcare. Sixty years after it was founded, the NHS is in desperate need of a new direction.

"The battle for extra investment has largely been won, but the service we're getting is simply not good enough."