Ministers urged not to set care cost cap that 'may be too high to help'

Ministers have been urged not to set a cap on care costs which is so high that it fails to help almost all of those in need.

Theresa May is expected to publish a green paper on social care before Christmas, which will set out options about how to fund care of the elderly.

The vexed issue nearly cost the Conservatives the last election, when their proposals were branded a “dementia tax”.  

Under those plans, pensioners’ assets - down to the last £100,000 - would be used to fund care whether or not they were still living in their homes.

Amid a growing backlash, Mrs May last year said the deal would include a cap on costs, with no one having to pay more than £72,000.  

However, the plan was shelved, amid promises to publish a green paper - which has been repeatedly delayed - to explore the options.

Charities for the elderly raised fears that future proposals could be even worse than those which were abandoned - and could help as few as one in 20 of those in need of care.

Calculations for the Alzheimer’s Society suggest that capping total costs at £72,000 would only affect seven per cent of those who receive care.

And a higher threshold of £80,000 would mean just five per cent of pensioners receiving care would receive help, while just two per cent would get help if it rose as high as £100,000, the estimates by analysts LaingBuisson show.

The average resident of a care home spends two and a half years there, with annual costs of between £30,000 and £40,000.

Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, has indicated his interest in new models of funding for care of the elderly - including either a voluntary or compulsory system of insurance for those of working age.

Such a system could cover all care costs, but would be more likely to cap them at a certain level.

The green paper on social care - likely to be published the week before Christmas - is likely to propose a cap, but defer setting the specific level of it.

The Alzheimer’s Society said any on ceiling on costs needed to be lower than £72,000 if it was to make a real difference.

When a cap was first proposed, in 2011, it was at a level of £35,000.

The charity urged ministers to introduce an NHS Dementia fund, to subsidise the higher care costs faced by those with the disease.

Jeremy Hughes, the charity’s chief executive, said sufferers were forced to cut back on food, heating bills or sell personal possessions to cut the cost of care.

He said: “It’s been more than ten years since we first called on the Government to end the grossly unfair ‘dementia tax’. While the social care green paper is a great opportunity to finally put things right, if they suggest a cap on care costs higher than the previously mooted £72k proposal, it will leave people with dementia hung out to dry.

“A cap at £80k, alongside the proposed £100k floor, would help a paltry 5 per cent of people with dementia - many would die before they even reached it. This would completely betray people with dementia, and generations to come. What’s really needed is an NHS Dementia Fund - which we’re calling for to cover the extra costs people are charged for their specialist dementia care.”

A Department of Health and Social care spokesman said: “We are determined to make social care sustainable for the future. We have set out our principles for social care reform and will publish our proposals in a green paper soon.”