According to Michelle Mitchell, the charity Director for elderly advocacy group Age UK, English Councils are expected to cut spending on social care services for older people by 8.4% next year, which could have devastating effects on the nation’s elderly.

After filing a Freedom of Information Act request, Age UK conducted a survey of each of the 152 English Councils that are responsible for providing adult social services. According to Age UK, 139 of the authorities responded.

After studying their planned expenditure on older people’s social care, they found that Council net spending on social care for older people would likely drop by 8.4%, or by £610 million by the end of the current financial year in
2011/12 compared to 2010/11.

“Funding for social care is already inadequate and the system today is failing many older people at the time when they really need help. The consequences of cutting expenditure further to 8.4 per cent, indicated by our research, could be devastating”, said Mitchell.

In response, Age UK has begun calling on the government to live up to its legal duty of providing care to vulnerable older people by committing an additional £3 billion of spending on social care services.