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People in South Yorkshire are less likely to receive fully funded care than anywhere else in the country‚ according to ourlatest figures. They are up to 15 times less likely to receive fully funded care than some other areas of the country.

Residents in both South and West Yorkshire have also seen the biggest decrease – over 50% - in the levels of fully funded care over the last three years‚ at a time when national levels have been going up – primarily due to a number of high profile court cases.

Anyone whose primary need is for care – even if they are not based in a hospital – should have their care paid for by the NHS. Widely varying guidance from Strategic Health Authorities means that there is a huge difference in who qualifies for fully funded care in different areas and in different years.

The Department of Health has long known about the lottery in fully funding care‚ but are now consulting on this issue. Age Concern urges anyone with an interest in this issue to respond to the Department's consultation.

Gordon Lishman‚ Director General of Age Concern‚ said:

"We knew that there were significant differences in how people's care is paid for - but we are surprised at the scale of these unacceptable variations. This real and unforgivable postcode lottery means that many deserving people in Yorkshire are missing out on having fully funded care from the NHS.

"Local differences in the profile of people who should be getting continuing care do not account for the enormous local variation in figures. NHS trusts in Yorkshire need to take responsibility for paying for the healthcare of local people‚ and the Government and local social service departments must ensure that the NHS is paying for the very services they were created to provide.

"We are extremely worried about the reduction in the amount of people who received fully funded care in some areas‚ especially at a time when the funding of care is slowly increasing across the country. How can a service that is based on people's ongoing needs fall over 50% in one year and be almost 15 times less likely to occur in one area than another? It is deplorable‚ and the NHS trusts and the Government need to act immediately.”

Notes for editors

1. Readers can get more information on fully-funded care from our website or from our information line on 0800 00 99 66.

2. The statistics come from a parliamentary question asked by Sandra Gidley MP. The full table of the number of people receiving continuing care as at 31 March 2006 is below

	2003	2004	2005	M.Pop	Per 1‚000	Increase  03-05
All SHAs	17‚019	19‚723	20‚842
South Yorkshire	216	192	103	1.2	0.08	-52
Cumbria and Lancashire	343	376	252	1.9	0.13	-26
Norfolk‚ Suffolk and Cambridgeshire	127	435	411	2.1	0.19	223
North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire	410	705	442	1.6	0.27	7
South West Peninsula	239	516	406	1.5	0.27	69
Essex	834	698	465	1.6	0.29	-44
North Central London	294	320	355	1.2	0.29	20
West Yorkshire	1‚374	688	618	2.1	0.29	-55
Shropshire and Staffordshire	673	663	453	1.5	0.30	-32
Avon‚ Gloucestershire and Wiltshire	927	741	653	2.1	0.31	-30
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire	700	830	604	1.6	0.37	-13
Greater Manchester	1‚039	984	936	2.5	0.37	-9
Dorset and Somerset	94	241	428	1.2	0.35	355
Surrey and Sussex	1‚047	719	961	2.5	0.38	-8
South West London	232	433	523	1.3	0.40	125
Leicestershire‚ Northamptonshire and Rutland	137	215	602	1.5	0.41	339
South East London	635	580	651	1.5	0.43	2
Thames Valley	259	632	920	2.1	0.43	255
Trent	509	928	1‚147	2.6	0.44	125
West Midlands South	561	690	696	1.5	0.46	24
Birmingham and the Black Country	1‚165	1‚107	1‚119	2.2	0.50	-3
Cheshire and Merseyside	1‚084	1‚074	1‚153	2.3	0.50	6
North East London	812	733	809	1.5	0.53	-0.3
Kent and Medway	770	770	883	1.5	0.58	14
Hampshire and the Isle of Wight	673	530	1‚141	1.7	0.67	69
Northumberland‚ Tyne and Wear	461	1‚081	916	1.3	0.70	98
County Durham and Tees Valley	904	1‚374	1‚197	1.1	1.08	32
North West London