Free personal care for the elderly is vital, lobbyists have told the government.

Campaigners handed a petition of 10,000 signatures to Downing Street on Tuesday, calling for long-term care to be available on the NHS.

While the NHS currently picks up the tab for nursing care, members of the Right to Care campaign argued that personal care, such as washing and dressing, should also be free to those that need it.

Under the present rules, a contribution must be made to the costs of personal care if the person has savings and assets of more than £12,000.

The Right to Care campaign estimated 120,000 people currently pay for their personal care, either in their own home or in care homes.

Of those, 61 per cent are said to have an income of less than £200 per week, but bills of £300, they argue.

"A quarter of us will need long-term care at some time in our lives and thousands of people with low incomes are currently having to pay for it," said campaigner Clare Rayner.

"How can it be fair that we share the cost of treating cancers, but not that of caring for people with medical problems like dementia?

"Those who have given a lifetime of service to this country deserve better and society has an obligation to offer them much more support."

Two separate reports published earlier this year have highlighted the problems faced by people requiring personal care.

A study by the Royal Commission published in September found that rules governing the payment of care were so complicated that many elderly people were likely to be unfairly treated as a result.

A separate inquiry by the Health Service Ombudsman earlier this year found evidence that some local health authorities had misinterpreted and wrongly applied guidance on the issue from the Department of Health, leading to the mistreatment of some patients.

"The arguments which lead the government to support the universal provision of healthcare through the NHS should apply to the care of older and disabled people at least as strongly," said Professor Harry Keen, president of the NHS Support Federation.

Although the National Care Homes Association has given its backing to the campaign, chairman Nadra Ahmed outlined some reservations.

"We do have serious concerns about the generality of this campaign which says all personal care should be free at the point of delivery and funded from general taxation," she said.

"Does that mean the same pot of money will be raided to pay for free care? If it is, then we say this campaign will, sadly, be doomed to fail because it will simply be a case of spreading what little government money there is even further."

The campaigners were joined by Liberal Democrat health spokesman Paul Burstow.

"The government has betrayed a generation of older people who the prime minister promised, before the 1997 election, would not be forced to sell their homes to pay for their basic care," he said.

"Ministers are mistaken if they think this fundamental issue of fairness will go away.

"The elderly, who have worked and paid taxes all their lives, expected that care would be there when they needed it and now this government is defending attacks on the sick elderly which denies them their dignity."