We can still defuse the ticking care timebomb - The Observer 18th May 2008

Adult social care, on which the Prime Minister has just launched a public consultation, is widely considered a financial timebomb. A postcode lottery, social care for the elderly and vulnerable is both expensive (£13bn) and bad. And it is getting worse: a combination of an ageing population and stretched budgets means that people have to be ever needier to qualify. Even official figures concede that already 280,000 people with real need get no care at all. With more over-65s than children, and with over-85s the fastest-expanding population segment, at this rate the costs of care will quadruple over the next half century.

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