Older people’s lives will be ‘at risk by budget cuts to social care’

The lives of older people will be at risk if the chancellor’s proposed cuts are applied to social care, a national charity has said.

Age UK, which joins together Help the Aged and Age Concern, was commenting following the announcement of the UK’s emergency Budget yesterday (June 22nd).

During the Budget speech, chancellor George Osborne said most government departments will have to brace themselves for cuts.

Michelle Mitchell, charity director at Age UK, said: “If the chancellor’s projection of a one-quarter cut to public service budgets is applied to older people’s care, thousands of lives will be lost.”

“Unless the chancellor safeguards social care spending in the autumn spending review, he will fail in his quest to protect the most vulnerable from budget cuts.”

However, she welcomed the government’s plans to introduce a “triple guarantee” to raise the basic state pension from next April, as well as proposals for a matching increase for Pension Credit which will help the poorest in later life.