Theresa May ditches manifesto plan with 'dementia tax' U-turn

Theresa May has said that a Conservative government would set an “absolute limit” on the amount that people pay for social care, in a U-turn on plans included in her party’s election manifesto last week.

The prime minister claimed that the inclusion of a cap, which comes after even supportive newspapers dubbed the plans a “dementia tax” triggering days of backlash, was simply a clarification.

“Since my manifesto was published, the proposals have been subject to fake claims made by Jeremy Corbyn. The only things he has left to offer in this campaign are fake claims, fear and scaremongering,” she said, during a speech in Wrexham to launch the Welsh Tory manifesto.

“So I want to make a further point clear. This manifesto says that we will come forward with a consultation paper, a government green paper. And that consultation will include an absolute limit on the amount people have to pay for their care costs.”

However, the prime minister refused to be drawn on the level of the new cap.

Despite May’s insistence that there had been no shift in position, she immediately faced a string of difficult questions from journalists who said the announcement amounted to a “manifesto of chaos”.

“Let’s be clear we have not changed the principles we set out in our manifesto. What we have done is clarified that in the green paper which will be a consultation document we will have an upper limit. But the basic principles remain the same,” the prime minister responded.

“Nothing has changed, nothing has changed,” she added tersely, raising her voice towards the end of the session when a correspondent from the Telegraph asked if anything else was likely to be altered in the Tory manifesto.

May then accused a Guardian journalist of borrowing a term from the Labour party after it was suggested that the “dementia tax” would still mean a wide disparity between the children of Alzheimer’s and cancer sufferers.

“This is a system that will ensure that people who are faced by the prospect of either requiring care in their own home or go into home are able to see that support provided for them and don’t have to worry on that month by month basis about where that funding is coming from. They won’t have to sell their family home when they are alive, and they will be able to pass savings on to their children,” she said.

The announcement triggered claims of “chaos, confusion and indecision” from Labour while the Liberal Democrats said it represented a “manifesto meltdown”.

The Tory manifesto included plans to include a person’s property in the means test used to assess payments for social care within the home. It set a floor of £100,000 and promised that a family home would never need to be sold in a person’s lifetime.

However, the policy caused anger because it meant offspring would be forced to cover the cost, with many needing to sell their parents’ home to do so.

The phrase “dementia tax” was used by Labour but also by newspapers supportive of May to highlight the idea that someone suffering from Alzheimer’s, which means heavy reliance on social care, would be less able to pass on their home to their children than someone with an NHS-treated condition such as cancer.

Despite May’s claim that the “basic principles” of the policy were the same, there was no mention of a cap in the Conservative manifesto. In fact, a briefing note for journalists made clear that the party believed its policy was “fairer and more equitable than the current system and the cap [of around £35,000] recommended by the Dilnot report”.

The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, was asked on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme if the policy was a rejection of both Dilnot’s cap and the £72,000 limit that was in the process of being put in place by the Conservatives under David Cameron.

“Yes, and not only are we dropping it but we are dropping it ahead of a general election and we’re being completely explicit in our manifesto that we’re dropping it,” said Hunt.

Labour’s Barbara Keeley, the shadow social care minister, told the Guardian: “What people need is certainty, so they can know how their future care needs will be met. What the Tories are delivering is chaos, confusion and indecision over the funding of care. The Tories were going to introduce a cap on care costs in April 2016, then in April 2020 and now they are talking of a green paper, which is another delaying tactic.”

The Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, called it a “manifesto meltdown” but said it changed nothing. “As Theresa May has made clear herself, nothing has changed and her heartless dementia tax remains in place. This is a cold and calculated attempt to pull the wool over people’s eyes.”

The Labour candidate in Ilford North, Wes Streeting, called it a shambles and it was not a U-turn but a “fudge” because there was no information on what level the cap would be set at.

In Wrexham, May argued that the policy was necessary to create a “sustainable future for social care” saying there would be 2 million more people over 75 coming into the system over the next decade. “Our social care system will collapse unless we make some important decisions now about how we fund it,” she said.

She also tried to shift the focus by upping her attack on Corbyn, after a weekend where polls showed the gulf between the two parties narrowing to nine points.

She said Labour had “taken people in Wales for granted for decades – just as it has in other communities across Britain”.

Several local Conservative activists who attended the launch at the memorial hall in the village of Gresford discreetly told reporters after the launch that they were pleased to see the robust questioning of the prime minister on social care.
One activist, who did not want to be named, told the Guardian he thought the policy was imbalanced. “I’ve had family die of dementia and of cancer. I’ve also worked all my life to pass on what I’ve worked for to my children, I’d be devastated if it all had to go on care after I die, but this way it’s a lottery,” he said. “It does seem like the balance isn’t quite right.”