Asset testing policy will be aged before it starts

The Government's announcement today that it will delay until 2005 the phasing out of asset testing of older people in long-term care is ludicrous, Green Party MPs Sue Kedgley and Mike Ward said today.

The MPs said it seemed very much like an election bribe for the 2005 election.

"The Government appears to be saying to older people - you have to vote for us if you want asset testing removed," the MPs said.

"We are pleased the Government is finally getting around to removing the insidious and unfair asset testing regime, as promised by Labour at the 1999 election, but we would like to see it start sooner."

The MPs said they were concerned that some elderly people, who really should be in residential care, could be kept at home inappropriately by their families till 2005, in an effort to safeguard the family assets.

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