Not enough people want to work in elderly care. Not enough money available in the municipalities for decent elderly care. While the government is preparing further tax cuts, municipalities have to cut back on services provided to the elderly. This is not new; for the past ten years, municipalities have continuously cut from the budget meant for elderly care. Now, they got to a point where the mayors are saying that “they are not proud of the elderly care provided in their municipality”.
The average weekly time for visits for the home helper to people over 80 years old has dropped from 3.57 hours to 3.16 hours in the past ten years.
In 2020, the government promised 1000 more employees for elderly care. Not only did that not happen, but the number of elderly care employees has been reduced by 900.
There are 3.670 open positions for social and health assistants and 2.130 open positions for social and health helpers.
The number of people over 80 years old has increased by 31% in the past decade, while the number of people over 80 years old who receive home care visits has decreased by 4%.
“A reform is on the way for elderly care”, says the Minister for the Elderly.
