In early January, the United Kingdom launched a review of its social care systems. The review will include hearing from caregivers about what supports they need to care for their elderly, sick or disabled relatives and friends.
Canadian advocates for caregivers and seniors are eagerly watching the review. They say Canada also needs to reform how it supports seniors and unpaid caregivers.
“We’re rooting them on, and can’t wait to see how this develops,” said James Janeiro, director of policy and government relations at the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence, an advocacy organization.
Caregivers in Canada and the UK face similar challenges, he said. Both countries have aging populations and insufficient support for caregivers.
Governments have known for years that social care reforms are necessary, says Emily Holzhausen, director of policy and public affairs for the advocacy organization Carers UK. But the issue has become a “political football,” she said.
Politicians of all parties need to work together, she says. “People’s lives are too important to be a political football.”
Ongoing problems
In the UK, social care refers to supports to help seniors, people with disabilities or long-term illnesses live in their homes, rather than in hospitals or long-term care facilities.
This is similar to long-term care and home care services in Canada, says Dr. Samir Sinha, a geriatrician and clinical scientist at the University Health Network in Toronto.
Numerous government reports have identified problems with the UK’s social care system. A March 2024 report detailed chronic underfunding, long wait-lists for services and inadequate long-term funding.
Social care programs are run at the local level, often through government contracts with not-for-profit or for-profit service providers. People must pay for these social care services, but the fees vary based on individuals’ income, says Holzhausen.
The “beauty” of social care is that it can include everything from helping someone dress and plan meals, to supporting people at the end-of-life, says Holzhausen. But the range of social care activities makes it hard to define and fund appropriately.
Unpaid caregivers, such as adult children, often provide social care for their aging parents or other relatives. Unpaid caregivers may also support friends. These caregivers are not compensated for the care they provide, but may be eligible for financial supports from the government.
Different approaches
Like the UK, Canada is grappling with how to support its aging population — and its caregivers. In both countries, millions of citizens identify as unpaid caregivers, census data show.
Yet political parties in the UK have been quicker than Canadian parties to recognize the importance of supporting caregivers, says Janeiro. The recently elected Labour government’s party manifesto lists reforming social care and creating a National Care Service that would be similar to the National Health Service, the UK’s public health system.
“It’s become a political issue there,” said Janeiro.
The UK provides more financial support to unpaid caregivers than Canada does, says Janeiro. In the UK, eligible unpaid caregivers who spend more than 35 hours a week caring for someone can receive £81.90 a week from the government. In Canada, only a few provinces provide financial support for unpaid caregivers.
The Canadian government offers a tax credit for unpaid caregivers, called the Canada Caregiver Credit. But only nine per cent of caregivers receive it, says Janeiro. The credit is a non-refundable tax credit, so it only helps people who owe the government money at tax time, he says.
In 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mandated then-finance minister Chrystia Freeland to change the tax credit to a refundable benefit. The government has not implemented this change.
In Janeiro’s view, Canada is not in a position to introduce national reforms like the kind the UK is considering because the provinces are responsible for health care. But a national conversation about care would benefit Canada, he says.
A good starting point would be a national caregiving strategy that details how governments across Canada can support caregivers, he said.
“Canadian history is pretty clear: when the [federal government] starts taking something seriously the provinces come to it pretty quickly thereafter, because only the feds can offer that national perspective and the national leadership.”
The Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence has lobbied Ottawa for a national caregiving strategy since the centre launched in 2022. The 2024 federal budget announced plans to begin consultations on a strategy.
The government has been consulting with national advisory groups, a spokesperson for Employment and Social Development Canada said in an emailed statement to Canadian Affairs. The department did not say when consultations will finish, only that the government will release a report summarizing the consultations.
Janeiro would like every government to commit to better supporting caregivers.
“The dream is to have this on the public policy agenda in every province and territory, from coast to coast to coast, as well as at the federal order of government.”
Social costs
Sinha, of the University Health Network, says that, in his opinion, the UK’s review of social care is unnecessary.
“I don’t think the UK needs to do another review,” said Sinha, who studied social care for his doctoral work at Oxford University. “They’ve done dozens of reports over the years.”
Sinha is also the director of health policy at the National Institute on Ageing at Toronto Metropolitan University. Both the UK and Canada need to spend more on home care so people can age at home, he says.
In the UK, the government recently announced funding for programs to help seniors or people with disabilities renovate their homes. This could help people return home after hospitalization. A September report found that 13 per cent of UK hospital beds are occupied by people who could be discharged.
Canada also needs to move away from a long-term care model that houses people in large facilities, Sinha says.
A recent report by the National Institute on Ageing recommends governments adopt a small home model for new long-term care spaces.
Small homes already exist in some Canadian provinces, in the US, UK, Australia and several European countries. They typically house up to 12 residents, with each resident having a private bedroom and bathroom. Each home has dedicated staff, such as nurses and personal support workers.
Right now, many long-term care workers work in several facilities. When staff only work in one residence, they can get to know residents better. They also do not transfer illnesses from other facilities.
“Both [Canada and the UK] simply, in my view, need to spend more and spend more in the right places,” Sinha said.
At Carers UK, Holzhausen says the longevity of seniors and people with disabilities is cause for “celebration.”
“But we need to recognize that that comes with additional costs that society has to bear,” she said.
“If society doesn’t bear those costs … [then] disabled people and older people are going without the services that they desperately need, and their quality of life is compromised. That’s not where we should be as a civilized society.”
Canada isn’t following the UK’s lead, it’s the other way around. The UK is in the process of ramming through its own industrial grade human disposal law, pattered after MAID. They’re also planning deep cuts to social programs for both their disabled and their elderly, to coerce the vulnerable to line up to be slaughtered. And, they’re bluntly and disrespectfully ignoring the concerns and warnings of disability, palliative care and senior advocacy groups. The UK government has been infiltrated by the same homicidal lobby group that used the court system and operatives within the government to bully Canada into murdering its citizens. It’s eugenic mass murder by forced poverty and industrial disposal, just like Canada, despite the flood of media lies to the contrary. Tens of thousands of Canadian seniors and disabled people are now living in tents, dying of malnutrition or asking to be murdered, thanks to meagre social benefits and nonexistent supports. That’s what’s coming in the UK. “Social care” and palliative care in the UK will soon be replaced by eugenic disposal, which is exactly what is happening in Canada.