PM: I’ll keep my promise to cap care home fees

DAVID Cameron has vowed to come good on his promise to introduce a cap on care fees for the elderly – but admitted it will take longer to implement than he pledged during the election campaign.

Ministers caused outrage this month by delaying the flagship manifesto commitment to bring in a cap of £72,000 on care home costs by next April until 2020.

Experts claim it may never be implemented – leaving pensioners with assets of more than £23,250 bearing the full ‘catastrophic’ costs of their care indefinitely.

But the Prime Minister said yesterday he was ‘very keen’ to deliver everything in the manifesto, which he called ‘the good book’. Referring to the care cap, he said: ‘It will happen. It’s just going to take longer than we had hoped.’

He said there were two reasons for the delay, adding: ‘Local authorities think delaying the cap and using that money to help with social care is the right answer.’

Mr Cameron said the second was that the Government had expected insurance firms to create policies to cover individuals for any residential care they might need in the future – but this had not happened.

In an interview with the Daily Mail as he marked 80 days since his majority Tory government was elected, he said the first weeks in power had ‘shown a government that has got a very clear direction and purpose about delivering for working people’. He added: ‘I don’t think we’ve wasted a day, frankly.’