Mencap responds to Tory voters social care survey

“The longer we wait, the longer social care users will pay the price”

Today, a new poll by Just Group has revealed that over a third of Conservative voters doubt that either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak can finally end the decades-long wait for social care reform.

  • When asked which of the two leadership candidates they trust most to the fix the issue of social care in the UK, four in 10 (40%) Tory voters picked Truss with under a quarter (23%) opting for Sunak.
  • But a high proportion – over a third (37%) of Tory voters – believe that neither candidate will uphold the government’s promise to fix the social care system once and for all. 

Commenting on the survey results, Matt Harrison, Public Affairs and Parliamentary Manager at the learning disability charity Mencap, said: 

“These statistics only reinforce what many in the social care sector feel – that social care isn’t treated with the priority it deserves, and while many politicians claim that social care is fixed, or that they will fix it, very little is actually done.

“The longer we wait, the more social care users will pay the price. The vast majority of working age disabled adults, including people with a learning disability, will not benefit from the cap on care costs, yet they continue to bear the brunt of reduced access to care and support and an understaffed, undervalued social care workforce.

“It’s time for each leadership candidate to define their plans on tackling the social care crisis and commit to making this a priority.”