More than 5 per cent of Sweden’s population are aged 80 or older (Image: Getty)
Britain is to look to Scandinavia in search of ready-made answers to its social care crisis.
Sweden is seen as a world-class example of how an ageing population can be looked after without fleecing families of their life savings.
Ministers are desperate to understand how a country can offer best-in-class facilities to the most needy, most of whom remain at home, for just £170 a month.
A Swedish government spokesman said: “More than 5 per cent of Sweden’s population are aged 80 or older. Since more and more citizens in this age group are in good health, their care requirements have declined since the 1980s.
“One of the aims of elderly care in Sweden is to help people and those with disabilities live independent lives. This includes living in their own homes as long as possible.
“Elderly people who continue to live at home can obtain various kinds of support to make life easier.”
Most in receipt of help can remain at home for just £170 a month (Image: Getty)
One in five of Sweden’s 10.5 million population is aged over 65. By 2040 that figure will be 25%. Life expectancy is among the highest in the world at 85 for women and 82 for men.
There, social care is mainly the responsibility of its 290 municipalities [or councils] and largely funded by local taxes and government grants. Healthcare costs paid by the elderly are subsidised. More municipalities are choosing to privatise parts of their elderly care, letting private care providers run their operations.
Recipients choose whether they want home help or special housing to be provided by public or private operators but at a fraction of the cost of the UK where care is prohibitively expensive and quality varies widely.
The central aim of the Swedish system is to help elderly people and those with disabilities live independent lives in their own homes as long as possible, a stated aim of the UK government.
Those who remain at home can access help to do so with almost all municipalities delivering ready-cooked meals.
When an OAP is no longer able to cope, they can apply for assistance from state-funded home-help services. Elderly people with disabilities also receive assistance around-the-clock, allowing many to remain at home. Even those with a severe illness are provided with at-home health and social care.
The Swedish government spokesman added: “Each municipality decides its own rates for elderly care. The cost depends on such factors as the level or type of help provided and the person’s income. There is a maximum charge for home help, daytime activities and certain other kinds of care of around (£170) per month.
“Municipalities offer daytime activities for elderly and disabled people in need of stimulation and rehabilitation. These activities primarily target those with dementia or mental disabilities. “Daytime activities help many to continue to live in their homes.
“Volunteers from organisations such as the Swedish Red Cross and many others also visit elderly people living at home or in different kinds of housing. The visits may include a chat, a walk or accompanying someone on a visit to the doctor or hospital.”
Mr Streeting wants to shift Britain’s healthcare from hospital to community (Image: Getty)
By the end of this parliament in 2029 there will be 14.6 million people aged 65 and over in the UK – an 11% increase on the 13.2 million today.
Britain’s bloated welfare state is based on National Insurance contributions, yet no money is set aside to fund social care.
It means treatment for diseases like cancer are free on the NHS but social care costs, including help for conditions like Alzheimer’s, are not.
Failure to address the inequity between health and social care has seen sufferers forced to pay eye-watering sums out of life savings or sell homes.
Baroness Ros Altmann, 68, the life peer and social justice campaigner, said: “The whole social care system is a real disaster and frail vulnerable elderly people are being abandoned too often in 21st century Britain. Despite money pouring into the NHS, the social care sector has been left behind in the dark ages. It’s time to stop this betrayal of the frailest.”
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting wants to shift healthcare from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.
Last week he announced an independent commission will examine ways to reform Britain’s broken adult social care system after warnings the vulnerable and elderly have been failed by decades of chronic underfunding. It is the first step towards creating a new National Care Service to put the Cinderella sector on a par with the NHS.
But an interim report will not be delivered until next year at the earliest, with cross-bench peer Louise Casey’s final report not expected until 2028. It means three years before even a plan is in place.
Care home manager Mike Padgham, Chair of The Independent Care Group which speaks for providers, said: “I have long thought we should take a hard look at other countries and see how they manage their social care system. We could learn a lot. The system in Sweden is a case in point and something we should aspire to as soon as we are able. I have always believed the current system we have in this country to be grossly unfair and social care, like health care, should be free at the point of need, albeit with a small contribution from the individual.”