SUFFERERS of early onset dementia and other degenerative conditions under the age of 65 will be offered free personal care if new proposals being explored are accepted.
Ministers have confirmed they are exploring offering free care, with the scope of a new study looking at a raft of conditions affecting those below the threshold age for assistance.
It comes on the back of a campaign by the widow of former Manchester United and Dundee United footballer Frank Kopel, who has called for the law change in memory of her late husband.
Mr Kopel was diagnosed with dementia aged 59 and his wife Amanda paid out £1200 a month for care until he died in 2014, just weeks after he qualified for free personal care on his 65th birthday.
“Frank’s Law” would bring to an end the situation where people under 65 with Alzheimer’s, dementia and other degenerative conditions have to pay for the care they need, with Mrs Kopel lodging a petition with the Government calling for the change.
Following concerns that restricting the law to one condition would be unfair, health secretary Shona Robison has confirmed the scope of the study had been widened beyond dementia.
She told Holyrood’s Public Petitions Committee: “We have agreed that the scope of the feasibility study will look at all those under 65.”
She said the study is “on track” to be completed this summer, adding: “Hopefully the information we get in the summer will give us some clearer options of the way forward.
“Obviously it has to be deliverable. The options have to be affordable and they have to be fair and consistent.
“So what we need to have first of all is the information on which to be able to make some informed decisions about what is possible.”
All parties at Holyrood except the SNP support bringing in Frank’s Law, and Conservative mental health spokesman Miles Briggs has vowed to bring a Member’s Bill forward in the summer if the Government fails to introduce it.
Committee convener Johann Lamont said: “While the Scottish Government shows the beginnings of a commitment to address the issues around charges for dementia care for under-65s, a feasibility study will not in itself resolve the challenges faced by many families across Scotland.
“The petitioners made a compelling case for change to the current system and important questions remain for the committee on the ‘postcode lottery’ of charges faced by families and how local authorities are defining the ‘need’ for care.
“We await with interest the findings of the feasibility study and will continue to examine the important issues raised by these petitions.”
Jim Pearson, head of policy and research at Alzheimer Scotland, said: “We believe that we must go beyond free personal care and recognise the needs of those with advanced dementia are health care needs which should be free at the point of delivery. It is our view that the significant financial contributions people with advanced dementia are often asked to make for the care they need is inequitable.
“We have already started this discussion and over the coming months we will be exploring this further so that we can work towards a fairer system, than the current ways of paying for care, for those with advanced dementia.”
Questioned on a separate petition calling for non-residential social care charges for older and disabled people to be scrapped, Ms Robison said she wanted to avoid introducing legislation in favour of working with local authorities to achieve “greater consistency and fairness” in care charging.
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