You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
A drastic overhaul of policy is needed to help older people downsize
We need to realise that our ageing society affects us all, writes Jane Ashcroft
The devil’s not always in the detail.
In a fast-moving world, the devil is often in soundbite politics and rapid responses that fail to tell the full story.
That’s why I was not the first to celebrate the government’s rethink on supported housing funding.
The government’s decision to abandon its plans to cap housing benefit for people in sheltered housing at the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate is almost certainly good news – or better than the bad news we had received previously on the subject.
It is difficult to overstate the potentially devastating impact the original proposals risked for sheltered housing.
But until we have clarified the detail of the new approach we need to proceed with caution. Delving into the Budget’s costings provides some cause for confidence as it appears the government is no longer anticipating the savings initially envisaged through the previously proposed LHA cap.
It seems, therefore, that we have successfully landed our messages about the huge financial savings that sheltered housing generates for the state by enabling people to stay independent for longer.
READ MORE
Now, we need to work positively to define what we mean by sheltered housing and what costs are eligible for the new Sheltered Housing Allowance.
Good older people’s housing and care is not a uniform, unchanging product. It reflects the demands of local communities – which can change over time.
“Good older people’s housing and care is not a uniform, unchanging product.”
Extra care, assisted living, independent living, sheltered housing, very sheltered housing, retirement housing, retirement villages… there are as many different names as there are service models.
And the support provided can vary from very light touch in largely self-supporting communities to something akin to a care home.
The proposed new funding approach reflects calls from Anchor, Hanover, Housing & Care 21 and others for funding to remain within the welfare system.
But questions remain over what evidence on the true cost of providing the service will be used to set the rent.
We must also work closely with government on how the regulated rent increase should be calculated in future years.
And we support the government’s desire to ensure residents have a greater role, as well as ensuring local authorities can influence supply and services provided by existing and new schemes.
Yes, we’ve worked positively with government and yes, we’ve demonstrated the hugely important role that sheltered housing plays.
“Questions remain over what evidence on the true cost of providing the service will be used to set the rent.”
But we have much further to go before we see a truly joined-up approach to demographic change.
The Autumn Budget contained nothing for social care despite an estimated £2.5bn funding gap by 2019/20. And we have to wait until summer 2018 for a social care green paper.
According to new research, spending constraints, especially in social care, are “associated with a substantial mortality gap”.
To put it another way, people are dying.
At the same time, the Budget’s focus on helping first-time buyers onto the housing ladder can only succeed if the entire housing market can be got moving.
More needs to be done to support older homeowners who want to access specialist retirement housing to buy. That would free up family-sized housing for others at relatively low cost.
The government needs to drastically overhaul parts of its housing strategy to reflect the fact that many older people would like to downsize but are prevented from doing so.
Helping people to climb up the housing ladder is important but it’s crucial that older people looking to downsize are helped too.
“Supporting older people to live in safe, appropriately-sized accommodation also helps younger families access the housing they need.”
Supporting older people to live in safe, appropriately sized accommodation also helps younger families access the housing they need.
The change of heart on sheltered housing funding is welcome.
It may not be a leap forward in terms of integrated policy on ageing but it has seen a number of different government departments working together while the pressures for older people and the state have only got more intense.
Yes, there’s an important job to do in thinking through the detail on sheltered housing funding.
But the real opportunity lies in ensuring we move away from the unsatisfactory and disjointed policy world of the past and truly recognise that our ageing society affects us all.
Jane Ashcroft, chief executive, Anchor
