AS THE Herald’s recent Grey Matters series demonstrated there is a degree of failure to face up to reality in relation to many areas of policy affecting older people. Nursing shortages, a lack of resources for social care, huge problems in paying for pensions, and pressures on the provision of suitable housing, for example.

In many of these areas there is a sense that the level of challenge posed by an ageing population is not being faced up to. Our front page story on Saturday was another example of this. Age Scotland’s survey of Scottish Councils showed thousands of people who should be entitled to free personal and nursing care being denied it.

Not denied it permanently. Age Scotland’s most provocative claim was that councils are deliberately delaying assessing people’s needs and then once a need has been decided, delaying providing the necessary payments. The charity told me: “It is clear that delays are being used to manage demand for care against [councils’] stretched resources.” It knows this because unofficially, councils have admitted this to the elderly clients who call Age Scotland’s helpline. This is corroborated by senior council officials who have told me the practice may be common.

There is some indication that this is being done in a tactical way. Cases from the Age Scotland’s phone lines feature some clients who have been assessed as being well-off enough to pay for their accommodation. Some claim to have been told that free personal care for such “self-funders” is being effectively rationed. Another self-funder was told by a different council that it was prioritising people awaiting discharge from hospital.

Is this wrong? Not necessarily. Some might agree that those in most need should be prioritised. But that is not the policy. The Government continues to insist: “Free personal and nursing care is ensuring that we can offer older people the support they need”, but admits Age Scotland’s survey suggests one in 20 suffer significant delays.

Age Scotland says “Delays in payments can make the obligation to free personal care a theoretical rather than a realistic entitlement”. It couild be time for a degree of honesty about the entitlement to this flagship Government promise.