Indeed, Andrew Dilnot wrote a seminal report in 2011 advocating a care cap. Hugely praised at the time, it was left to rot in the proverbial long grass with its pages occasionally dusted down.
This Stygian nightmare is set to continue. With no money in the sector, despite excellent and dedicated staff, recruitment is grim, even associated with people trafficking, while pay, career ladders and promotions prospects are poor. Integration with health care is only a pipe dream in most cases.
Nothing, I am sure, will appear in the 2023 Autumn Statement – Jeremy Hunt (who should know better as the former health secretary) last year announced a delay in the funding reforms to at least October 2025.
But the thorny question is, who should pay? The individual or the state and if so, how much is too much?
Another influential report, Just's Care Report 2022 (now its 11th year of publication), senses the public mood.
According to its research, by and large house property should come into the equation – the equitable amount people feel is somewhere between 25 per cent and 50 per cent of the value of the home..
And why should anyone (or even their advisers) advise people to plan for long-term care when everything could change in 2025? We may get a cap on care costs, or we may get a 'National Care Service' and free personal care (as Labour promised in 2019).
If you are over 65, or have a relative over 65, this concerns you. Tackle your MP, press the political parties on what their manifesto will contain on this issue that affects us all. We will all need some sort of care, even for a few weeks before we die.
Sadly, unlike the political consensus on pensions, there is none on social care. A sound and sensible policy could be a vote-winner but all too often in the past it has been a vote-loser – remember Theresa May and more recently Boris Johnson’s promising to sort out social care by 2025?
And the current social care abyss is the ultimate kick in the teeth for a brave generation that had their childhood ruined by war and rationing. It is just too complex, costly and controversial for any one party to handle.
I fear an all-party consensus solution is a distant prospect. The main parties continue to weaponise the NHS and social care crisis at general elections rather than put the nation first. Politicians need a nudge from us.
Stephanie Hawthorne is a freelance journalist
