Historic Step taken towards securing Fairness for Senior Citizens - UUP MLAs
Ulster Unionist Stormont Health Committee Members, Rev Robert Coulter and John McCallister, have today welcomed the Health Minister’s roadmap towards making free personal care a reality.
Health Minister Michael McGimpsey today said that the department would:
- look to exclude the family home from the financial assessment
- explore the possibilities of increasing thresholds above which people must pay for their care
- explore the possibilities of increasing the minimum personal expenses allowance
- reach early conclusions on the steps I may be able to take within the existing legislative framework
- work to the timeline for implementation of Free Personal Care of April 1 2010.
Ulster Unionist Health Spokesperson Robert Coulter described today as an “historic and momentous step towards securing fairness for older people and their families”.
Rev Coulter said: “This has been a good day for families across Northern Ireland. The injustice of hardworking families being cruelly penalised in old age will become a thing of the past.
“The Minister has given the Assembly a clear timetable for the implementation of free personal care. It is now up to the Executive to back the Health Minister and ensure that he is given the tools to deliver.”
The North Antrim MLA added: “The UUP wants to ensure that the Health Department and the entire Executive secure sustainable funding for free personal care. Some of the other parties would have settled for an unstable, unfunded approach to free personal care. The people of Northern Ireland deserve better, which is why the Ulster Unionist Party will work to ensure that the Executive delivers the proper level of funding.”
South Down MLA John McCallister added: “While the Assembly and Executive moves towards the implementation of free personal care, the Minister’s commitment to seek ways to remove the family-home from the means-test sends a signal that the worst injustices of the present system will be removed quickly.”