FINALLY , THE HOPE WE NEED

Care bosses hail fund plan but fear NHS will hoover up extra billions

CARE bosses last night hailed the sector’s new funding as ‘hope for a better future’, despite fears the health service will swallow up most of it.

They said the £86,000 cap on personal care costs – funded by a rise in national insurance – was a ‘once-in-a-generation’ opportunity to improve social care.

Under the scheme, the State will start to contribute towards the cost of someone’s care once their assets start to fall below £100,000. The hope is that this will mean fewer people have to sell their homes to pay for care – and they will be able to pass on more to their children.

Welcoming a ‘concrete plan’ to address the issue at last, campaigners said the announcement provided hope that care bills would no longer ‘spiral into infinity’. But some said they feared the social care sector would end up playing ‘second fiddle’ to the NHS. Others pointed out that the new system will not start until October 2023 – leaving families facing sky-high bills for another two years.

Charities also said they were disappointed the cap had been set at such a high level. The Alzheimer’s Society warned it would help only a ‘handful’ of people with dementia, while the UK Home Care Association said £5 billion of extra funding was ‘nowhere near enough’.

Boris Johnson said the new system would protect the elderly from the ‘catastrophic fear of losing everything’.

The hike in national insurance will deliver more than £5 billion for social care by 2024/25, including £500 million towards better training for carers.

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care

‘Playing second fiddle to the NHS’

England, questioned how increased funding will be diverted from the NHS to social care after the three-year window. He said he hoped that ‘social care will be rewarded and recognised rather than playing second fiddle to the NHS’.

fiona Carragher, director of research at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: ‘A cap would need to be considerably lower than the worryingly high £86,000 proposed by the Government if it’s to make a difference for more than a handful of people with dementia.’

And Caroline Abrahams, co-chairman of the Care and Support Alliance and charity director of Age UK, said: ‘While the Prime Minister’s announcement doesn’t give us everything we wanted and we are worried about the funding, it is definitely worth having and is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve social care.’

UK Home Care Association chief executive Dr Jane Townson said: ‘This is nowhere near enough. It will not address current issues and some measures may create new risks.’

Jenny Morrison, co-founder of Rights for Residents, said: ‘The crisis in the care sector extends beyond funding. Many care homes are struggling to fill empty beds, which is affecting their financial viability. We believe that any reforms need to ensure that care home residents have the same rights and freedoms as everyone else in society.’