Polly Toynbee asks a seemingly difficult question and discusses a knotty issue (In Liverpool I saw the tough choices Louise Casey faces on social care – starting with who will pay?, 13 October). Her question is framed as an issue of individual choice inviting the response: “Not me if I can avoid it.”
The responsible answer is, of course, all of us – collectively. It is an uninsurable risk that can only be solved equitably and efficiently as a collective solution. By entangling the issue of funding with provision of services, moral clarity is lost. Issues of matching funding distort and influence the level of care provided and ensure that progress toward resolving the question of who determines the need for care is delayed.
