May in care costs cap U-turn after ‘dementia tax’ hitsTories in polls

THERESA May has made a dramatic U-turn on her manifesto policy on social care amid signs that controversy over a so-called “dementia tax” was hurting Conservatives in the polls.

Just four days after the Tory manifesto ditched plans for a cap on care costs in England, the Prime Minister announced that proposals for a maximum payment would be included in a consultation following the June 8 general election.

The Liberal Democrats accused Mrs May of “panic”, while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said her Government was mired in “chaos and confusion”.

And the PM came under immediate pressure to reveal the proposed level of the cap, with rivals pointing out that it could still result in elderly people being asked to stump up six-figure sums for lengthy and complex care for conditions such as dementia.

Thursday’s Tory manifesto set out plans to include the value of elderly people’s properties when calculating how much they should pay towards the cost of care at home, as well as residential care. And it guaranteed that no-one would see the value of their estate shrink below £100,000 as a result of care costs.

But Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said at the time that it was “completely explicit” that the idea of a cap had been dropped.

A cap was the central recommendation of the 2011 Dilnot Report into care funding and was due for introduction at a level of £72,000 in 2020, but Mr Hunt said it was not “fair” as it would result in people with multi-million-pound homes being subsidised by taxpayers who were struggling to get by.

Speaking at the launch of the Tories’ Welsh manifesto in Wrexham yesterday, Mrs May said: “This manifesto says that we will come forward with a consultation paper, a government green paper. And that consultation will include an absolute limit on the amount people have to pay for their care costs.”

Appearing visibly angry, she accused Mr Corbyn of resorting to “fake claims, fear and scaremongering” over the impact of her plans and chided reporters who asked about a dementia tax for “using terms that have been used by the Labour Party to try and scare people in this country”.

Mrs May denied her announcement amounted to a U-turn, saying: “Nothing has changed, nothing has changed.” She told reporters: “We have not changed the principles of the policies we set out in our manifesto. Those policies remain exactly the same.”