Shaping Our Lives Chair Peter Beresford and Equal Lives CEO Mark Harrison write in Labour Briefing about the parlous state of social care provision in England and Wales. With a government that has “no credible proposals to offer following the dementia tax debacle” and looming cuts to local authority funding, Peter and Mark show how these cuts and failures in service provision have resulted in poor people being unable to afford the social care that they need to live independently. Peter and Mark advocate for the establishment of a right to independent living and a universal national independent living service – paid for from direct taxation and free at the point of delivery, alongside the NHS – as potential solutions to this dire status quo.