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Social care costs to be capped under new Plan for Health and Social Care

Social care costs will be capped under the Government’s Plan for Health and Social Care, it has been announced.

The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, said the measure will “end the cruel lottery around social care costs”.

Under existing legislation, those with more than £23,250 in savings and assets – including property – are expected to meet the costs of later life care in full.

This means that around one in seven adults face lifetime social care costs of more than £100,000.

But the new rules will mean that no one in England will have to pay more than £86,000 in care costs, regardless of where they live, how old they are, what their condition is, or how much they earn.

The savings threshold will also be reduced, meaning anyone with assets of less than £20,000 will not pay for care at all.

A new, means-tested regime for those with assets between £20,000 and £100,000 will also be introduced, giving this group access to state support in addition to personal contributions.

Commenting on the plan, the Government said: “The overall system will be made fairer, to ensure those who fund their own care do not pay more than state-funded individuals for the equivalent standard of care.”

Welcoming the measures, Emily Deane, Technical Counsel at STEP, said: “We welcome any commitment to tackling social care funding and hope today’s proposals will help give people certainty so they can plan for the dignity they deserve in later life. We look forward to seeing the detail of the Government’s plans.

“However, any additional funding needs to go hand in hand with an overhaul of the complex laws that govern care funding, which amounts to a postcode lottery based on the attitudes of local authorities.”

The new measures will be paid for by the introduction of a new Health and Social Care Levy, effectively increasing National Insurance Contributions (NICs) by 1.25 per cent from 2022.

The tax is expected to raise an additional £12 billion in funding for frontline health and social care services across the UK over the next three years.

Click here to access the Plan for Health and Social Care.

For help and advice with related matters, please get in touch with our later life planning team today.