COALITION government cuts are depriving nearly 400,000 elderly people of the social care they need to survive independently, Age UK warned yesterday.

The charity says official figures show that the numbers of over-65s receiving social care have fallen from more than 1.2 million to fewer than 850,000 — due mainly to cuts imposed on local authorities by the Tories and their Lib-Dem partners.

This is despite an ageing population.

Age UK director Caroline Abrahams said: “This devastating scorecard speaks for itself and it lays bare the fact that our state-funded social care system is in calamitous, quite rapid decline.

“Hundreds of thousands of older people who need social care are being left high and dry. The lucky ones have sufficient funds to buy in some support, or can rely on the goodwill of family, neighbours and friends. But there are many who are being left to struggle on entirely alone.”