Ministers propose ‘annual accounts’ to track care costs

18 Jul 13
Everyone using adult social care services will be receive annual ‘care account’ statements once the government has introduced a cap on individual costs, care minster Norman Lamb said today.

By Richard Johnstone | 18 July 2013

Everyone using adult social care services will be receive annual ‘care account’ statements once the government has introduced a cap on individual costs, care minster Norman Lamb said today.

Publishing details of how the £72,000 lifetime cap will work once it is introduced in 2016, Lamb said the updates would allow people to monitor their progress towards the level where their costs would be met by the state.

He also confirmed that the government would introduce a deferred payment scheme from April 2015. This will allow local councils to pay people’s residential care home fees, with these then being repaid from the person’s estate when they die, allowing elderly people to keep their home during their lifetime.

Lamb said that the introduction of the cap, which was recommended by the Commission on the Funding of Care and Support, chaired by Sir Andrew Dilnot in 2011, would ‘bring reassurance to millions’. The current ‘unfair system’ left individuals vulnerable to unlimited care costs.

Launching a consultation on some of the detailed elements of the scheme, he called for views on how best to assess the care needs of individuals in the regime. Lamb had previously indicated that national care eligibility under the cap would be based on 'substantial' need, and former care minister Paul Burstow has called for clarity on how people currently paying their own costs will be assessed.

Lamb also called for views on how the care cap should operate for people aged under 65. The government had previously stated that people of working age would have to pay less before the state would step in to meet costs. The consultation calls for views on what level that should be set at, and how these would affect individual’s ability to plan, prepare and build up savings to meet their care need changes.

From 2016 the government will also provide means-tested financial help for people with less than £118,000 in assets, including their home.

 

 

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