Nine out of ten want to end means tests for care for the elderly

The elderly should no longer face means tests to determine whether they should pay for their own long-term care, an influential report said yesterday.

Under current rules, those who have never worked or saved get free state support, such as a care home place or help at home.

To get the same quality of care, those who have accumulated assets worth over £21,500 must pay their own bills, which commonly run to £500 a week or more.

In many cases - some highlighted by the Daily Mail's Dignity for the Elderly campaign - they are even forced to sell their homes to fund their continuing care.

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It is a system that is 'widely resented', according to the report by Caring Choices, a collective of 15 organisations including charities such as the King's Fund, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Help the Aged and Age Concern.

The paper, based on interviews with more than 700 older people and their families, found nine out of ten rejected means-testing,

which was seen as 'unjust'. However, only one in five thought the taxpayer could or should bear all the costs of long-term care for the growing elderly population.

The most popular solution, finding favour with three-quarters of those surveyed, was sharing the cost between the state and the individual, with everybody receiving some help from the taxpayer.

The report said: 'There was almost no support for the current funding system.

'Many participants expressed outrage that people of modest means who have worked to build up savings or a pension can be impoverished by a prolonged period of disability or dementia. The fact that some people need to sell their home to pay for care home fees was widely resented.'

It added that 'people with assets are prepared to accept that they should pay something'.

The report is being published in advance of a Government green paper promised for later this year, which pressure groups hope will spark a full-scale shake-up of funding for the elderly.

The views reflect the findings of a King's Fund inquiry led by Sir Derek Wanless in 2006. The Wanless report suggested the state should provide basic help and on top of that match an individual's personal spending pound for pound.

The King's Fund has estimated that combined state and private funding could cost the taxpayer more than £12billion a year, £ 4billion more than the current system.

The Caring Choices study also highlights a desire for a wider range of care at home, such as help with shopping and gardening.

It also calls for the Government to examine state-supported equity release schemes that would allow the elderly to use just some of the value of their property to pay for care.

David Rogers of the Local Government Association, which supervises social services care, said: 'This report underlines how inadequate and iniquitous the current care system is.'

s.doughty@dailymail.co.uk