General Election 2019: Labour pledges free personal care for the elderly A Jeremy Corbyn government would invest an extra £10bn a year to fund shortfall

Every older person who needed social care would get the service for free under a Labour government, Jeremy Corbyn pledged on Sunday.

Labour would spend an extra £10bn by the year 2024 to meet the cost of a National Care Service. The party said the policy would enable older people to stay in their own homes and live independently, with the support from carers for daily tasks such as getting out of bed, washing and preparing meals.

New figures revealed by Labour showed that since April 2017 9,200 older people have been forced to ask their local council for help after running out of money to pay for the costs of care.

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A Labour government would also reform provision of social care by introducing new ethical standards covering workforce terms and conditions and training for carers.

‘Social care crisis’

The party said older people would save an average of £7,231 a year, based on the average cost of a home care package being £16 an hour for 8.8 hours of free personal care a week.

Under current measures, only people with the lowest level of savings receiving personal care funded by the state. It has left many elderly people with dementia, who do not meet the means test, having to pay for the cost, despite the illness being a chronic medical condition.

Labour has also pledged to end the use of zero-hours contracts and pay carers a “real living wage” of £10 an hour from 2020 and end 15-minute visits.

Mr Corbyn said: “We have a social care crisis on our hands and it was created by the Tories. I want everyone to be able to live with dignity, which is why we will start by introducing free personal care for older people.

“Labour is on the side of care workers and those who need care. We are committed to real change in the way that social care is delivered.”

Cross-party talks

Social care has become one of the intractable issues facing the country as the population lives longer, but successive governments have failed to introduce a long-term system which meets the huge costs, currently borne by local authorities.

Cross-party talks on a solution have repeatedly broken down. Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said that Labour could be prepared to enter a new round of cross-party talks on the issue, if the party failed to win on Thursday.