Urgent action needed to address 'grossly inadequate care'

 "When Age UK was invited to sign up to this call for urgent Government action on social care we didn't hesitate to join in. The facts and figures presented here make a compelling case, but it is the individual stories of older people struggling with grossly inadequate care or no care at all which really bring home the state we are now in.

"Like the disabled eight seven year old woman I heard of this week who can no longer attend church - her main weekly outing - because cuts have put paid to her local disabled transport service. Or the eighty two year old man who needs help to get out of bed and whose local social care service is so stretched his carers are almost always late and sometimes don't make it at all, leaving him in bed for hours and hours.

"Many older people are stoical and don't want to 'make a fuss' in such situations but truly they deserve so much better. I cannot overstate how worried we are at Age UK about the situation some older people are now in. The Government must act to right this wrong and we can only hope they will respond to our call."