MRS JM Given's account of how her father had to use his life savings for residential home fees (Letters, September 14) is a chilling omen of what fate may have in store.

This scandal has come about through the Tory government's closure in the 1980s of tens of thousands of long stay NHS hospital beds.

Because these were mainly in former workhouses we did not complain, particularly as the scheme was reassuringly named "Care in the Community."

But these beds were not replaced. By making their occupants the responsibility of cash starved local authorities, the government shifted a costly burden from the underfunded NHS.

Health care paid for by the state became means tested social care, for which all but the poorest had to pay: privatisation by stealth, without consultation or mandate.

People who paid their dues throughout a working life for their cradle-to-grave care now had to pay for being old and sick; and if they had been thrifty and saved a bit - too bad.

Some 40,000 elderly have to sell their homes every year to pay for long term care. This is how John Major fulfilled his pledge of "wealth cascading down the generations." Labour set up a Royal Commission which recommended earlier this year that the costs of care should be split between living costs, housing costs and personal care.

Personal care should be paid for from general taxation; the rest should be subject of a co-payment according to means - not an ideal outcome but better than at present.

The report was received by the government with less than enthusiasm and recent leaks suggest that Health Secretary Frank Dobson is about to reject the commission's findings.

This would not be surprising. Having slavishly followed the Conservatives' budget plans and much of their attack on welfare spending, Labour are not going to be outdone by the Tories' record that no government has clobbered pensioners more.

G RAYNER, Whinney Lane, Langho.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.