(c) North Edinburgh News
Just to keep things in proportion as the increased costs of free personal care become the latest weapon in the anti-independence armoury, see this in the Scotsman today:
‘Free personal care funding in Scotland soars to £500 million. The sum spent on implementing the flagship policy at home rose from £267m in 2007/08 to £379 in 2016/17 in 2016/17.’
That’s a 41.9% increase but we need to set it against inflation in the same period. See this:
‘According to the Office for National Statistics composite price index, prices in 2017 are 31.86% higher than prices in 2007.’
http://www.in2013dollars.com/2007-GBP-in-2017
So, the costs are increasing ahead of inflation but only by around 10% more.
In the same period, the number of over 65’s increased from 0.85 million to 1.01 million
So, that’s an increase of 17%.
OK, that is a reasonable concern here, but costs are by no means ‘soaring’ as the Scotsman would have it. We have to hope that Scotland can get full control of the economy, and of immigration, to enable the growth required to pay for this.
Talking-up Scotland 
Is this maybe a case where we need to look at the context? Is this part of the new integrated care system – put more money into home-care, which is meant to be a cheaper option and far better for the health of the people needing care, so they get out of hospital quicker and do not need to go back as much – freeing up beds and services ?
I think the increased spending on this might just be a really good thing!
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P.s. I am not getting any older, so I doubt many other people are, so I don’t think the population is aging at all, anyway. So there.
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