Free care for the elderly is a luxury we can't afford

It should be obvious no country can afford the grandiose gestures regarding the free care for the elderly that the Scottish Government has seen fit to bestow on an ever-increasing elderly population (your report, 27 August). What is wrong with those who can afford it being made to pay for their care? There is no God-given rule that if you own a house you must be allowed to pass it on to your children.

If I, in my retirement, wished to go and stay in a hotel for my remaining years, would the public purse pick up the bill? So what is the difference when a person is asked to pay out of their savings for their care in a home?

Those who cannot afford to pay should be able to get the same level of care funded by the state. But changes should be made to enforce everyone to make reasonable provision for their future when they are in a position to do so. There is no reason why those who do save for the future should pay for those who deliberately do not set aside for their old age.

Public service pensions must be harmonised with those in the private sector, and the funding of state pension cannot be forever paid out of today's budget. And we must all get used to the idea that the retiral age must go up as longevity increases if we are going to expect our pension to be commensurate with our working income.

IAN ROSS

Eden Lane

Edinburgh

Everyone knows we can afford free personal care if we really want it. In 2006, the health select committee at Westminster had in mind the Scottish example when it stated: "It is clearly for governments to decide their own spending priorities – however, we maintain that, with political will, the resources could be found to fund free personal care."

How true. As a volunteering charity working to practically support older people in the community, WRVS believes we should spend less time fretting with the bean-counters and more time focusing on the wellbeing of older people that a social care policy such as free personal care secures.

Perhaps if we all began to accept that free personal care is as much a health question as it is anything else we'd be more sanguine about rising costs. After all, do any of us want anything other than a healthy, happy old age?

ANDREW JACKSON

WRVS in Scotland

Mansfield Place

Edinburgh