A crisis in social care funding since the coalition government came to power, has left many elderly people in greater hardship, struggling with higher charges and less specialist support.
Government figures show that councils' annual budgets for help for the over-65s have fallen by £1.3bn since 2010, with cuts hitting nursing homes and support for the most vulnerable.
Despite a promise by the chancellor, George Osborne, last year to provide an extra £2bn for councils to spend on care homes, meals on wheels and daily help for older and disabled people, research conducted by the Commons Library suggests that the money, which was not ring-fenced, has not reached the frontline. Instead, the figures show that in 2009-10 councils in England spent £7.6bn on social care for the over-65s compared to £6.3bn this year – a cut of nearly a fifth (17%).
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