Sue Doughty launches Care for the Elderly Campaign in Guildford

12.00.00am GMT Thu 22nd Feb 2001

Liberal Democrats are calling for free personal care for the elderly.

She said "The present system is blatantly unfair. It is indefensible that dementia sufferers are forced to pay for personal care such as help with washing and bathing which cancer patients in hospital get for free.

"Tony Blair said before the last General Election that he did not want to live in a country where people were forced to sell their homes to pay for their care. He even set up a Royal Commission to look into this. They recommended that personal care should be free, but the Government are refusing to make this happen. Only last week I was talking to a pensioner whose wife had to go into a home, because of her dementia. He is suffering great hardship and has paid out many thousands of pounds to ensure that she receives the care she needs.

"In Scotland, where the Liberal Democrats are part of the Government, the law is going to be changed from next year. This shows the difference that the Liberal Democrats can make in Government. The Tories are in a complete mess over this issue. In Scotland they backed the Liberal Democrats in pushing for charges to be scrapped, but in Westminster their spokesman said recently that 'he agreed with the Government'. Not a single Conservative MP voted to scrap charges when the Lib Dems proposed this recently in Parliament.

We are deeply concerned about all aspects of welfare for elderly people. The pressure which we put on the government has resulted in a very late change of heart about pension levels. All this has done however, is make up for a little of the time the government refused to act."