The Costings Of
The Policy Of Free Personal Care For The Elderly In Scotland
Hidden Costs of Free Care
Cuthbert, J.R., Cuthbert, M.: Public Finance, (23 Nov 2001)
Summary article, arguing that costs of implementation of Free Personal Care
policy in Scotland had been seriously underestimated.
Free Personal Care for the Elderly: A Critique of Costings
Cuthbert, J.R., Cuthbert, M.: Fraser of Allander Institute Quarterly Economic Commentary, Vol 27,
No1: (March, 2002).
A substantive critique of the costings of the free personal care policy in
Scotland, arguing that there are serious weaknesses in the costings which had
been carried out, and that this was likely to impact on the quality of service
delivered.
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Free Care for the Elderly
Cuthbert, J.R., Cuthbert, M.: Fraser of Allander Institute Quarterly Economic Commentary, Vol 29, No.4: (February, 2005).
A further critique of the free personal care costings, which identifies, in
particular, a serious underestimate, (by more than 50%), of the size of the key
client group of disabled elderly persons in private households.
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What Do the Statistics on Free Personal Care Tell Us
Cuthbert, M., Cuthbert, J.R: background note underlying press report in the Sunday Herald, 17 December 2006.
This note reports on an analysis of the statistics on free personal care published by the Scottish Executive, and shows that there are very severe data quality problems with the published figures. In addition, the basis on which the figures have been collected is inconsistent with the way in which the original costings of the policy of free personal care were derived. For both these reasons, the published figures cannot be used to meaningfully monitor whether the outturn costs of the new policy are in line with the original projections. A fuller version of the work reported on in this note will appear in due course in Scottish Affairs.
Free Personal Care for the Elderly: the Monitoring of the Cost of the Policy
Cuthbert, M., Cuthbert, J.R.: Scottish Affairs, Issue no 59, Spring 2007.
This paper examines the quality of the data published by the Scottish Executive in March 2006 on the performance of its free personal care policy, and concludes that the data is not fit for the purpose of monitoring the policy. An Annex giving more detailed figures supporting this paper will be made available on this website shortly.
'Boyd Loophole' Strengthens Scotland's Case in Attendance Allowance Dispute
Cuthbert, M., Cuthbert, J.R.: Scotsman, June 25, 2007.
When Free Personal Care for the elderly was introduced in Scotland, the Department of Works and Pensions refused to transfer to Scotland a sum equal to the Attendance Allowance previously received by self-funders in care homes: a sum amounting to more than £20 million. This refusal was justified on the basis of DWP rules. This article describes a precedent, the "Boyd Loophole" case, where DWP chose to break the very same rule. Knowledge of this precedent should greatly strengthen the Scottish Executive's hand when it re-opens this issue with Whitehall.
Free Personal Care: What Lessons can be Drawn for England from the Scottish Experience
Cuthbert, M., Cuthbert, J.R.: Public Finance, 22nd January 2010.
This article was prompted by the recent proposal to introduce free personal care in the home in England, and considers what lessons England should take from the experience of the introduction of free personal care in Scotland.