Social care cap delay branded ‘inhumane’

ALMOST 150,000 people have died waiting for state social care in the past five years, NHS figures reveal.

Over the same period, a further 28,000 people exhausted their life savings paying for their own social care, its data confirm.

The latest statistics show that 145,219 people applied to a local authority in England for social care funding between 2017-18 and 2021-22 but died before receiving it.

Meanwhile, 28,355 people who paid for their care and had spent all of their funds requested social care support from a local authority, the Labour Party says.

In his Autumn Statement on Thursday, Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, announced plans to delay the introduction of an £86,000 lifetime cap on care costs from next October until 2025.

Sir Andrew Dilnot, who came up with the figure 12 years ago, has spoken out against this latest “inhumane” delay, calling it “retrospective taxation” and saying that there was “no excuse” for the postponement.

He said the cap was “urgently” needed and pushing it back to 2025 would betray thousands who had been budgeting for it since it was announced last year.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Sir Andrew added: “It’s hard to think of a more vulnerable group than people who need social care for a long period, and their families.

“The statement yesterday said it was all about protecting the most vulnerable, demonstrating the British value of compassion.

“Well, it’s hard to think of somebody who we need to feel more compassion for than somebody who has a long-running dementia or somebody who has chronic arthritis so bad that they can’t dress themselves or boil themselves a kettle or go to a loo on their own.

“We wouldn’t dream of saying to somebody diagnosed with… cancer that they were on their own until they spent the last £23,000 of their assets. It seems inhumane. It’s a tragedy.”

‘No one should see their life savings wiped out or be left without care’

Liz Kendall, the shadow minister for social care, said the Government had “overpromised and underdelivered” on social care.

“No one should face catastrophic care costs, see their life savings wiped out, or be left without care when they need it,” she added.

The cap, which was to have been funded by higher National Insurance contributions, aims to ease the pressure to sell family homes to help meet social care costs and enable families to leave legacies for loved ones.

It was proposed by Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, in September 2021.

Prof Vic Rayner, chief executive of the National Care Forum, said: “There is little in this Budget that talks to the vision of developing care with people at its heart.”