Daily Maverick
Dailymaverick logo

Maverick Citizen

Maverick Citizen

Western Cape officials push for home-based care, private funding after Older Persons Programme budget cut

Western Cape officials push for home-based care, private funding after Older Persons Programme budget cut
Jaco Londt was appointed MEC for social development during the announcement of the new Western Cape Cabinet at the premier’s office in Cape Town on 13 June 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach).
Tamsin Metelerkamp
By Tamsin Metelerkamp
5 Dec 2024
Facebook
0
The budget for the Western Cape Department of Social Development’s Older Persons Programme dropped by R34-million between 2021 and 2024, placing significant pressure on NGO-rendered services for people over 60.

Over the past four years the Western Cape Department of Social Development’s (DSD) Older Persons Programme has been hit by a precipitous drop in funding – a situation that is of “great concern” to its senior officials.

Between the 2021/22 and 2024/25 financial years, the budget dropped by R34-million, from R252,228,000 to R217,853,000, according to Charles Jordan, chief director for children, families and vulnerable groups in the department. In the past year alone funding dropped by R18.5-million.

The Older Persons Programme encompasses the design and implementation of integrated services for the care, support and protection of people over 60. The budget cuts are placing pressure on NGOs in the elderly care sector that rely on funding from the Western Cape DSD, at a time when the province’s population of older people is on the verge of a significant rise.

“Currently in the Western Cape province, we’ve got about 818,000 older persons above the age of 60… 58% of them are women… Very concerning to us as a province is the growth of the older persons population. By 2031, we will have one million older persons over the age of 60, and by 2050 there will be over two million,” said Jordan.

Jordan and other senior officials from the Western Cape DSD were briefing the National Council of Provinces’ Select Committee on Social Services on Wednesday, 4 November, following the committee’s oversight visit to the province in October. The visit was rooted in the committee’s decision to contribute to the legislative process of the Older Persons Amendment Bill.

NGO funding crisis


According to Dr Robert Macdonald, head of the Western Cape DSD, the funding cuts for the Older Persons Programme over the past year exist within the broader context of a R70-million reduction of the department’s overall budget for transfers to NGOs.

“That is… due to the dual effect of the national budget cuts, as well as the above-inflation wage increases [for public servants] that were not fully funded by National Treasury that had to be absorbed by the department – so, that is squeezing out the money for the NGOs,” he said.

“The Older Persons Programme has been disproportionately affected. Along with the Disabilities Programme, they’ve suffered some of the biggest cuts among the NGO-rendered services [that] the DSD funds. And so we are extremely concerned about these services.”

Macdonald noted that the department had received some additional funding for the service sectors during the recently tabled 2024/25 Adjustments Budget for the province. It also raised its concerns around the shrinking budget for the Older Persons Programme with the provincial Treasury during the budget planning process for the coming year

“We are hoping that we can try to at least start to reverse this trend, because it is becoming very bad in old age homes, and many of the service centres have also had to close down due to the fact that they don’t have enough funds to function… We are going to do everything we can to assist,” he said.

Western Cape social development MEC Jaco Londt said that within this context of limited resources, the department was “stretching the rand as far as possible”.

Monique Mortlock-Malgas, spokesperson for the Western Cape DSD, told Daily Maverick that while there were no funding cuts for old age homes, the department-funded facilities have not received any inflationary increases for the past few years, which has influenced the quality of food and services.

Read more: Western Cape NPOs sound alarm on impacts of social development budget cuts on the vulnerable 

“Cuts were done with community service centres – these are centres where older persons get together three to five days a week and interact with each other for support and socialising. They receive meals as well. Due to the cuts, these centres don’t have money for transport and now meet less days a week,” she said.

In the past three years, one old age home and two assisted living homes for older persons have closed down. Most old age facilities were struggling to be financially sustainable and running at a deficit, said Mortlock-Malgas.

older persons Social development MEC Jaco Londt during the announcement of the new Western Cape cabinet at the premier’s office in Cape Town on 13 June 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)


Priority shift


The Western Cape DSD only provides funding for NGOs that are correctly registered. Among those organisations that receive funding under the Older Persons Programme, there are:

  • 113 residential facilities;

  • 144 service centres;

  • 11 independent living facilities;

  • 16 assisted living facilities; and

  • Seven social service organisations.


Laying out the department’s priorities for the next five years before the Select Committee on Social Services, Jordan said they were looking to expand home-based care services for older persons who weren’t living in an old age home – an initiative that would involve strong collaboration with the provincial Department of Health and Wellness.

“The implementation and roll-out of funded, home-based care services needs to be prioritised, due to the old age homes becoming extremely expensive and unaffordable… We have got to a point, as you can see with the drop in budget, that it’s become very difficult and very expensive to maintain the old age homes,” he said.

The department was also pursuing additional support from non-state actors, continued Jordan.

“A very interesting path that we have taken… is to lobby assistance and support for more funding, not only from provincial Treasury – because we know Treasury don’t always have the money – but to look at donors from the private sector, to increase financial support to… old age homes or community-based centres or any services we’re rendering to older persons,” he explained.

The department would continue to prioritise the registration of old age homes and community-based services, and keep monitoring NGOs for compliance with the prescribed norms and standards, said Jordan.

Read more: Older people in South Africa not receiving the care they deserve, says Human Rights Watch

Daily Maverick asked the Western Cape DSD for more information on how the expansion of home-based care services would be funded and managed.

“If we receive additional funds, we will expand these services. This will, however, be done by old age homes or NGOs rendering home-based care to the communities. This will not be managed by DSD or [the Department of Health and Wellness] since government does not have the staff capacity to do this themselves,” responded Mortlock-Malgas.

Neglect of older persons


Many NGOs catering to older persons have had their funding cut in recent years, according to Irene Snell-Carroll, provincial director for Age-in-Action Western Cape. Age-in-Action is a developmental organisation representing more than 800 NGOs that provide services to older persons in need of care.

“We’re all different programmes with the Department of Social Development, so a lot of our subsidies were cut. Some have been sustained, meaning over the past five years it’s been the same, not increasing at all,” said Snell-Carroll.

She told Daily Maverick that in instances where the department was funding posts for social workers at NGOs, some organisations had been unable to increase the salaries of those employees for several years.

“The problem is also that in terms of older persons, it’s very difficult to get funding because the focus is on children and the youth... Nobody’s really interested in what older people are doing. But for me, it is actually very sad because these are the people who built the country up, and now they’re been neglected,” said Snell-Carroll.

“It means for our organisations, we can’t deliver the same services. Everything around us… is increasing [in cost] and for our organisation, it also means we’re losing staff because we can’t compete with different government departments in terms of salaries.”

When asked about the Western Cape DSD’s plan to scale up home-based care services, Snell-Caroll expressed the concern that these solutions would remain inaccessible and unaffordable for the most vulnerable. 

She advocated for the department to increase the subsidies for NGOs, stating: “They really need to put serious thought into this, because otherwise the services are just going to go down, and people will decide it’s no longer worth it to do government work – because we are an extension of what government is supposed to do. If they’re not supporting us, how can we be there for society?” DM

Categories:

Tags: