Hunt to outline £75,000 social care cap

Under the plan, the cap will be introduced in 2017. It will be accompanied by an increase in the asset threshold for receiving state support with care costs, from £23,500 to £123,000, meaning that many more people will be eligible for local authority funding towards their care.

There will also be support for people who have care needs when they turn 18, and for people who need care before they reach retirement age. The reforms are expected to be funded in part by a freeze on the inheritance tax threshold.

A Department of Health spokesman said Mr Hunt would announce details of this support, as well as further information about the £75,000 cap, in a House of Commons statement this afternoon. It is expected to take place at about 4.30pm.

The spokesman also addressed criticisms that the cap was set too high, stressing that a £75,000 cap in 2017 monetary terms would be the equivalent of introducing a £61,000 cap at 2011 price levels, which is when the Dilnot commission proposed capping costs. The commission said the cap should be set at between £35,000 and £50,000.

Local government figures have welcomed the principle of the cap, but raised concerns that it does not go far enough.

Sarah Pickup, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said: “Today’s announcement is welcome as a step on a journey, as a piece of a puzzle…But we must be clear that the journey needs to continue.”

She said the cap would not bring any new money into the system to pay for care, and that the underfunding of the system needed an “urgent answer”.

‘Disproportionate impact’

Ms Pickup also said it would be important for the government to consider how to distribute the extra funding between councils, because the cost of extra care funding would vary widely between different local authority areas.

David Rogers, chair of the Local Government Association community wellbeing board, said the cap was a “positive step”. However, he said, “on its own a cap is not enough to sort out long-term care and will mean little if the starting point is a system that is massively underfunded and unable to cope with the pressures of our rapidly ageing population.”

Cllr Rogers also echoed Ms Pickup’s concern about the distribution of funds between councils, saying he was “concerned about the disproportionate financial implications this cap could have on councils in different parts of the country.”