Care cap 'to be set at £75,000'

Feb 9 2013

Pensioners with savings of up to £123,000 are to receive state support with their care costs under Government plans, it was reported.

In a long-awaited coalition announcement, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt will say on Monday that the assets threshold will rise from £23,250 to £123,000, with a sliding scale of support, according to The Sunday Telegraph.

The means-tested threshold is higher than the £100,000 assets limit recommended by the independent Dilnot Commission appointed by Prime Minister David Cameron to make recommendations on the highly-fraught issue.

But the cap on costs that people have to pay for care is expected to be set at £75,000 - more than double the £35,000 economist Andrew Dilnot suggested.

The £75,000 figure is based on 2017 prices - when the reform will come in - meaning that in today's money it will be about £61,000.

Pensioners will still be required to meet accommodation costs for care home stays, which will be limited to £12,500 a year.

The package is expected to cost the Treasury £1 billion a year by 2020, significantly less than the £1.7 billion figure raised by the Dilnot Commission and resisted by Chancellor George Osborne.

In an article for The Sunday Telegraph, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said: "This reform will help protect some of the least wealthy pensioners from care costs - a fact lost on those who have sometimes argued that Dilnot's proposals are just about helping people in big, expensive houses.

"Of course, all these changes come with a price tag. At a time of financial austerity, we have to think carefully about spending more money. But for me it's clear cut: with an ageing population we can't duck this issue again.

"There have been too many reports and commissions started by governments over the last 20 years that have ended up gathering dust in a drawer. Over the coming decades, more and more people will suffer from long term conditions in their old age. It's time to wake up to reality and sort out care funding once and for all."