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Andrew Dilnot: "The government will be picking up a hefty bill"
Social care costs in England should be capped so people do not face losing their assets, a review has said.
Council-funded home help and care home places for the elderly and adults with disabilities are currently only offered to those with under £23,250 of assets. The independent Dilnot report says the threshold should rise to £100,000 and suggests a £35,000 lifetime cap on costs would be "fair".
But the Treasury is known to have doubts about the expense of the plans.
Just over £14bn a year is spent by councils on social care.
However, the changes would cost an extra £1.7bn a year if they were implemented now, although this figure could rise by 50% as the "baby boom" generation begins to retire.
Insurance Last year the coalition government asked economist Andrew Dilnot to look into how the system of funding social care in England could be changed amid concerns it was getting harder for people to get access to state support.
The ageing population and squeeze on council budgets have led councils to impose stricter criteria on who can get help.
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Care across the UK
- Many councils in England have stopped providing support to those with low and moderate needs
- The Dilnot Commission was set up in July 2010 to establish how to achieve an affordable care system for adults in England
- Wales and Northern Ireland both have means-tested systems which are similar to England
- Scotland provides free personal care, but in recent years has tightened the eligibility criteria for the same reasons as councils in England
It means while 1.8m are getting state funding, another 1m-plus either have to pay for support themselves or go without.
Instead of this system, Mr Dilnot's commission has recommended a partnership between the state and individual whereby the high costs are covered by the government - one in 10 people aged over 65 faces care costs of more than £100,000 over their lifetime. But the individual should be liable for the first tranche of care with a cap in costs set at between £25,000 and £50,000, the report says, suggesting £35,000 as the ideal figure.
The hope is that with the state paying for the high-cost cases, the insurance industry would be encouraged to develop polices which would cover any care costs below the cap.
The cap will not include so-called "hotel costs" for food and accommodation. However, the report there should be a standard charge which could be around £7,000 to £10,000 per year.
'Positive response' Means-testing should remain so that the poorest would not have to pay, the commission recommended, but the threshold increased to £100,000 for residential care to better reflect the rise in property prices seen over the last two decades.
The commission believes the cap and rise in the threshold will mean no-one will lose more than 30% of their assets paying for care.
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End Quote Michelle Mitchell Age UKSocial care is at crisis point - we cannot go on as we are doing”
Mr Dilnot said the money would have to be found by making cuts elsewhere or raising taxes and he said any tax rise "should be paid, at least in part, by those of retirement age".
Launching the report, he added: "The issue of funding for adult social care has been ignored for too long. "The current system is confusing, unfair and unsustainable. Individuals are living in fear, worrying about meeting their care costs.
"Putting a limit on the maximum lifetime costs people may face will allow them to plan ahead for how they wish to meet these costs."
At the moment, people with assets, including the value of their house, of over £23,250 pay for all their care.
The commission says this should be increased to £100,000 to better reflect the rise in property value seen over the past 20 years.
The report also calla for an end to the ever-tightening restrictions being placed on access. Instead, it will say that there should be a national standard so everyone has the same access no matter where they live.
Social care is currently means-tested However, he said the level of any cap, how it would be paid for and the threshold for means testing were among a "range of issues that need to be resolved".
Michelle Mitchell, of Age UK, said action was long overdue: "Social care is at crisis point. Vulnerable people are going without care and that means their conditions are worsening and they are ending up in hospital and costing the government more. We cannot go on as we are doing."
Age UK was one of 26 charities which wrote to the Sunday Telegraph calling for politicians to hold cross-party talks on the issue and "not let reform fall off the table for another generation".
Any overhaul of the system would take about five years to introduce.
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