“… A spokesman said Devon County Council’s budget, which will be debated next month, calls for an extra £18.8million for adult health and social care – almost 10% up – to cope with the increasing demand and recognise that Devon has significantly more over- 65s and over-85s who need care and support.
The increase would take the total social care and health budget to £216.5 million.
In all, the target revenue budget for 2017/18 would be £459.5 million.
‘We must step up to the plate’
Council leader John Hart said: “Health and social care is under immense pressure both in Devon and nationally.
“We must step up to the plate. Devon has one of the highest proportions of people over 65 and people over 85 and they need and deserve our help and support.
“So despite the continuing austerity agenda from the Government, we have found extra money for these vital services.
“We have always said our priority is to protect the most vulnerable in our society and I believe this target budget will help to do that.
“That’s why we are also increasing the budget for children’s services again following on from big increases there previously.”
East Devon Watch 
Devon’s situation is definitely awful, but I suspect that there will be other councils in more deprived areas where there are a large proportion of adults as well as seniors with health issues and where the ability for people to pay a large increase in council tax is also limited who will be even worse off than Devon.
This seems to me to be more about social engineering and moving the blame than anything else.
If someone dies as a result of a lack of social care funding, the government can now blame local council tax payers for being unwilling to pay for the social care of their neighbours. “Nothing to do with me governer” says the government.
And of course the Tory party donors in Kensington and Chelsea who already have council tax for their mansions at half the amount that we in Devon pay for a semi will not have to suffer because Kensington and Chelsea doesn’t have a large social care need.
It seems to me that social care should not be a postcode lottery. There are simply some things that should be provided as a nationwide common service, and social care and health care are two of them.
By forcing social care to be paid locally, they are creating a postcode lottery, one where the “haves” yet again end up having more, and the “have nots” and the “just about managings” and the “mere mortal middle classes” end up paying more for less services. This is dividing and divisive, whilst the British may have a stiff upper lip, the British are supposed to have compassion rather than a “hard nose” greediness.
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