Chancellor announces likely delay to cap on care costs

BASW UK Chair, Julia Ross responds to the likely decision by the UK Government to delay the proposed cap on care costs in England.

Last year, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that his government would be introducing a cap on care costs in England. The cap meant that lifetime care payments would be capped at £86,000 from October 2023 to prevent homeowners from being faced with huge care costs and being forced to sell their home to pay for that care.

This also meant that no person with assets below £20,000 would pay for their care, and people with assets between £20,000 and £100,000 would pay for their social care costs on a sliding scale.

The plan was heralded by some as going some way to ‘fixing the crisis in social care’, with others commenting that the cap on lifetime costs does not address the day-to-day pressures in social care and fears that it would add pressure onto already over-stretched services.

To pay for the plan, the Health and Social Care Levy was introduced which increased National Insurance by 1.25%, along with a 1.25% tax on business owners and investors.

But now, new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said that the cap on care costs is likely to be delayed as the government scrambles to find billions to cut from Government departments. The new Prime Minister Liz Truss has scrapped the Health and Social Care Levy introduced by Boris Johnson, which means that there is less money to pay for the cap.

It was only earlier this year that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt commented that he ‘failed to fix social care’ when he was Health and Social Care Secretary, and regrets not introducing a long-term plan like he did for the NHS.

Speaking in response to the proposal of a delay to the cap, BASW UK Chair Julia Ross has said:

“Many people with lived experience and their families will be worried to hear of the proposal to delay the cap and the impact that this will have on their care and whether they can afford to pay for it.

“While there has not yet been a formal announcement that this will go ahead, it would be yet another roadblock on the way to delivering a 21st century social care service that this country desperately needs.

“Over the past 12 years we’ve seen cuts to budgets, Ministers rowing back on pledges, small pots of money announced here and there to placate social care leaders and people who use social care services. But it is not enough. It has never been enough.

“We are concerned that a delay in the implementation of a care cost cap will mean that it never happens.  Equally there have been fears by those who deliver social care services that the cap would add a massive strain onto already over-stretched services. While the delay may calm those fears temporarily, it is vital that social care services have the funding and wholesale reform it desperately needs in order to deliver desperately needed affordable services to those that need them.

“The Chancellor is well aware of the crisis in social care and has previously spoken about his regret not tackling the crisis when he was Secretary of State. But now he is the Chancellor, and he can turn those regrets into the delivery of a social care system that works for all. He can end the cost-of-living crisis which will exacerbate the strain on social care services.

“This is a crisis made in Whitehall and Westminster, but it is those barely getting by that will pay the price.”

BASW England is consulting members on the social care cap, which members can access here.