Instead of agreeing a cross-party plan on how to deal with
the costs of individuals' lifetime care costs, the government has made a
unilateral decision.
The good news is that in principle it backs a cap on
people’s lifetime care costs.
The bad news is that it will not specify a figure for the
cap, nor a timetable for introducing it. So any actual decision on the figure
is likely to be delayed until late 2013 or 2014, and implementation could be
five years away, if ever.
The government-commissioned Dilnot report last year proposed
a cap on lifetime care costs of £35,000 but the Treasury is not prepared to
fund the cost of such a move.
So with yet another delay in the implementation of the reform and the
lack of any commitment to addressing existing funding pressures in the care
system –we are back to square one with lots of noise from politicians but no
action.
Long term care news: 10 July 2012
