Pensioners could lose £23,000 as care cap is delayed

TENS of thousands of pensioners will lose an average of £23,000 each as a result of the Tories’ continued failure to reform social care, according to an analysis.

Jeremy Hunt announced this week that his planned green paper on social care had been delayed yet again, this time until autumn.

The delay pushes back the day when the Conservatives introduce a cap on the amount the elderly would have to contribute to their care.

David Cameron originally promised to impose a £72,000 cap in 2016. But its introduction is not now expected until the early 2020s, leaving families facing hefty bills.

An analysis by Labour found 64,000 people will have to pay more towards their care than if the cap had been introduced as planned. Each will lose an average of £23,125, with some losing thousands more.

Shadow care minister Barbara Keeley said last night: ‘The need for a properly funded care system has never been greater but there seems to be no end to the Government’s indecision and lack of action. More people are having to pay catastrophic care costs, selling their homes and draining their savings for which they’ve worked all their lives. When will the Government finally take action?’

Social care dominated last year’s election campaign, with Labour calling the Tories’ insistence that families contribute thousands towards the care of their loved ones a ‘dementia tax’.

Under England’s care system, people have to pay all their social care costs until their assets – including the value of their home – are whittled down to the final £23,250. It means pensioners face huge care home and domiciliary care bills that reduce the amount their children can inherit.

Labour’s analysis assumes a cap will be introduced in 2022, six years later than first promised.

Department of Health projections published when the policy was first unveiled show that had it been introduced as planned in 2016, a total of 64,000 people would have benefited by 2022.

The projections also show that the cap would have cost the state £1.48billion by that year. This means each of the pensioners benefiting from the cap would be worse off by an average of £23,125.

‘Indecision and lack of action