Charging elders: perverse incentives and poverty

Abstract

This paper argues that the two thematic constructions in the Fowler and Griffiths reports have combined to create financial diswelfares for elder customers of community care. It is argued that decentralised systems of charging have to date created territorial inequalities es pecially for elders in receipt of means-tested benefits. The paper reviews the incidence of reliance on, and evidence of, underclaim in welfare benefit entitlements in relation to community care. In order to reduce regional inequities, the case for an equitable charging policy is presented, reflecting a central principle, hitherto ignored, in the Griffiths Report. The rationale for such a policy, it is argued, con forms to the second principle of a Rawlsian theory of justice.