Finland is one of the EU countries with the most alarming dependency ratio prospects for the coming decades. With the added pressure from the economic crisis, the sustainability of the welfare state, in social and health services in particular, is threatened. Already a care deficit is observed, and it is specifically the elderly who are in the centre of concern. This paper demonstrates how the governance of care becomes a central site of political struggle in the context of an ageing population. Drawing from a case study on recent legislative reform for elder care services in Finland, I argue that despite a rhetorical commitment to welfare state principles across the political spectrum, in the background neoliberal policies are pushed ahead as 'solution' to the demographic challenge. These programmes and schemes however, rely on the maintenance and reproduction of unequal, gendered care relations
