Autumn Statement: Jeremy Hunt announces two-year delay to the cap on care costs

22nd November 2022

It has now been over a decade since Andrew Dilnot concluded his inquiry into the social care system. Dilnot concluded that the adult social care system was not fit for purpose and his solution was a limit to the amount any one person should have to pay for care over their lifetime.

Currently we have a system where if you have savings or assets worth more than £23,250, then you pay for all the support you need with day to day living. If you have less than that, then you’ll get some help from your local authority.

The Dilnot inquiry averred that unfairness was ‘built’ into the current system, with some people, for instance those with dementia, being required to pay huge costs across their lifetime for the support they need to survive.

Dilnot’s plan was to set a fixed limit on the care costs an individual would be required to pay in their lifetime. He hoped this would give people certainty which would allow families to plan and perhaps open up a private insurance market for care costs.

Care costs cap

Last year, the government said it would set a cap at £86,000. They also said they would raise that £23,250 threshold at which people get some council support up to £100,000. That was due to come in October next year, but with the government seemingly having given in to the temptation to evade the challenge of ‘squaring the circle’ of adult social care funding, it was announced this is now being delayed by at least two years.

With governments of various hues having promised to tackle this vexed issue, the concern is that by pushing it back beyond the next election, the plans are effectively being kicked into the long grass. Some are suggesting the postponement could even spell a ‘death knell’ for these changes.

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