Social care costs cap ‘abandoned’ says former lib dem minister

Plans to introduce a cap on social care costs from next year have been delayed until 2020 amid fears over how councils would fund the move.

Costs were to be limited to £72,000 for the over 65s and younger adults with disabilities from April 2016.

That was to have risen to £118,000 under the changes. The funding gap in the care system is growing by £700m a year, she added. “Without urgent measures to address care underfunding, the whole system is in danger of collapsing given the growing demands and cost pressures”.

Government funding to local councils was cut by 37% in real terms over the course of the last parliament.

Last month, the National Audit Office warned that c ouncils could find themselves forced to cut services due to a potential shortfall in funding for major changes to the social care system as the first phase of the Act was introduced.

The average council already spends 40 per cent of its budget on social care.

This would include using the additional time to “take stock on some of the other elements of the care and support reforms that are intended to support the cap system”, the minister said.

However, the government announced today that it will now be pushed back until 2020 after “genuine concerns” were raised.

The proposed appeals system for care and support will also be delayed so it can be considered as part of the forthcoming spending review.

Izzi Seccombe, chairman of the LGA’s community well-being board, welcomed the delay. In an ideal world, we would have funding for both the system and the reforms but we have to be realistic about where scarce resources are needed most.

“They could have given money to social care”.

It also included home helps who assisted with tasks such as washing, dressing and cooking.

A cap on social care costs has effectively been abandoned for as long as the Conservatives are in power, the Liberal Democrat MP who led the policy under the coalition government has claimed. “Only once we have a stable care system can we consider introducing a cap”. The clock is ticking. He said: ‘This government continues to be firmly committed to implementing the cap on care costs system to protect people from the risk of catastrophic care costs as recommended by the Commission on Funding for Care and Support. However, the version of the cap the Government wanted to bring in was set too high.

Stephen Burke, director of the Good Care Guide website: “The cap on care costs was a bad idea, very poorly implemented”.

The government has made no indication of whether the £6bn saved by delaying the reforms will be injected into the social care system.

Rossanna Trudgian, head of campaigns at Mencap, said: “We welcome the government delay to the introduction of the care cap. They chose a different priority”, he said. “This ought to be the beginning of a thoroughgoing, transparent process, through the coming spending review, of putting fair, equitable and fully-funded social care services back on track after what have been five devastating years”.

Janet Morrison, chief executive of Independent Age, the Older People’s charity said: “The delay in introducing the cap appears to be a belated recognition by the Government that the social care system is under vast strain”.