Landmark pledge on sky-high care bills
BORIS Johnson is to unveil a significant pledge to protect people’s family homes from the soaring cost of care bills.
Next week’s Tory manifesto will outline a ‘three-point plan’ to deal with the social care crisis – including a promise to spend an extra £1billion a year on the sector .
The blueprint will also contain a vow to hold cross-party talks to come up with a solution to shore up the care system and ‘give every person the dignity and security they deserve’.
The Tories say that in those talks, they will have ‘one red line – we will protect the family home’. It means that, for the first time, the children of those going into care will be confident they will inherit their parents’ home – rather than having to sell it to pay huge care bills after their parent dies.
Scots, however, will still have to hand over the family home as social care policies are devolved and controlled by the Scottish Government. But additional spending in other parts of the UK will provide a funding boost to the Scottish Government budget.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: ‘It breaks my heart to hear stories of people who have worked hard all their life being forced to sell their home to pay for care.’
At present, everyone in England has to pay the full cost of their care if they have capital worth more than £23,250.
In Scotland, families with property and savings above £28,000 have to pay the full cost of their care. Councils will contribute if you have between £17,500 and £28,000, and will pay all the fees if you have less.
But these thresholds deny any help to
almost everyone who owns a home. Mr Johnson’s pledge is that even children will not be forced to sell the family home.
The Conservatives will also pledge to plough an extra £1billion a year into social care to help plug the gaps in the system until a new policy is worked out. This will mean additional cash heading north of the Border, although it is up to the Scottish Government how the money is spent.
If he wins the election, Mr Johnson will invite opposition leaders to take part in cross-party talks on social care. These will look at options such as compulsory insurance schemes, paying for the cost of future care through your wage slip, tax rises to provide free state-funded social care, and whether there should be a cap on the amount people have to pay for their care, with the state stepping in to pay the rest.
Mr Hancock said previous governments had failed to address the failings in social care because the issue had been used as a ‘political football ahead of elections’.
He added: ‘We’ll commit to an ambitious three-point plan to address the social care challenge and give people the dignity and security they deserve.’
The first point is £5billion of extra funding over the next Parliament, much of which will be spent on taking on more care staff. The second is cross-party discussions, while the third is the ‘red line’ that no one’s home will be up for grabs.
‘Give people dignity and security’