People in Essex running out of money after paying for care
Age UK has said the care system is "fundamentally broken"
People aged 65 and over in Essex are using up their savings to pay for care bills and falling back on the council for support.
The most recent data from NHS Digital shows 125 people here were classified as "self-funders with depleted funds" in 2018-19.
Anyone with assets or savings worth £23,250 or more has to pay the full cost of their care.
People with less than that, but more than £14,250, have to pay a contribution to care costs.
If someone's capital falls below that threshold, the council will cover the full bill.
There were around 26,350 new requests for local authority support for people aged 65 and over in Essex in 2019-20.
Ruthe Isden, head of health and social care at Age UK, told Greatest Hits Radio Essex that running out of money after spending it on care is a very distressing situation for people to find themselves in:
"It creates huge anxiety because once people run out of money to continue paying for the care that they're receiving, there's no guarantee that they'll be able to stay in the care home where they're living or they'll be able to continue with the care package and with the carers that have been looking after them.
"So it's a hugely anxious time for people."
The Queen confirmed proposals for social care reform will be brought forward as she set out the Government’s legislative agenda on Tuesday (11 May), but no further detail was given.
Ruthe said the system we have at the moment is "fundamentally broken":
"We don't provide the right support to people at the right time, it's very difficult for people to access care.
"It's very difficult often for people even who are paying for their own services to access care simply because the way in which funding works means providers often go in and out of business quite quickly or they're struggling to make ends meet and provide the quality of care they want to provide."
She continued:
"We end up with a system which is really serving nobody well.
"On top of that, we have this added jeopardy for people who are entering into the system and supporting themselves that they may end up running out of money.
"Because at the moment care bills are quite limitless, they can carry on and on until really somebody has run out of money completely.
"There's no security within the system at all.
"So we have a lot of problems that we need to solve and we really do need to look at how we fundamentally reform the system to deliver for absolutely everybody."
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman previously said:
"Improving the adult social care system remains a priority for this government and we will bring forward proposals later this year to ensure everyone is treated with dignity and respect.
"Throughout the pandemic we have provided almost £1.8 billion in specific funding for adult social care including infection prevention and control measures."