Boris still won’t rule out anyone having to sell their home
BORIS Johnson refused yesterday to guarantee that no one will be forced to sell their home as a result of his social care cap.
He was asked at Prime Minister’s Questions by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer how his plan would meet this Tory election pledge.
Mr Johnson said his plan to cap care costs in England at £86,000, paid for by a new tax, would allow insurance firms to come up with products to protect people’s assets. As MPs packed into the Commons for the first PMQs since the lifting of coronavirus restrictions, Sir Keir said: ‘Someone with £186,000, if you include the value of their home – that is not untypical across the country in all of your constituencies – facing large costs because they have to go into care, will have to pay £86,000 under his plan. That is before living costs.
‘Where does the Prime Minister think that they are going to get that £86,000 without selling their home?’
Mr Johnson said: ‘This is the first time that the state has actually come in to deal with the threat of these catastrophic costs, thereby enabling the private sector, the financial services industry, to supply the insurance products that people need to guarantee themselves against the costs of care.’
One of the ideas behind the care cap proposed by Sir
‘Deal with these catastrophic costs’
Andrew Dilnot in his report on social care in 2011 is that it will give the insurance industry the guarantee they need to be able to manage people’s risk of needing care.
The existence of a cap means the financial services industry should be able to come up with products to meet all care costs.
This could enable people to take out an insurance product so that they will never have to pay the full £86,000.