Social Care Funding

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall Excerpts

Monday 11th February 2013 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

First, I completely agree with my noble friend that the leak to the media over the weekend was highly regrettable. I do not know how it occurred. It certainly was not of my making or that of my ministerial colleagues in the Department of Health. We wished to make this announcement to Parliament first of all, and I am sorry that that did not happen.

My noble friend’s second question relates to the national minimum eligibility threshold. We believe that that can be introduced in advance of the Dilnot package because what it is designed to do, as I explained earlier, is to give people greater certainty about their access to care wherever they live around the country, particularly for those who move from one place to another. That is a separate issue from those covered by Dilnot, although it was one of those which the commission considered. It is separate from the issue of the cap or the means test, which we believe can logically come in at a later date.

[Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall]

My Lords, as one of those in the Chamber today who is not an expert on social care matters, I ask the noble Earl whether he can reassure the great many people who are hearing about this for the first time as to what it means in practice for them when they have to start paying for social care—or, more particularly, when they become in need of social care. When we have a Budget, newspapers often produce ready reckoners, showing the impact of tax rises, reductions or whatever is being introduced on people in particular circumstances. Will the Minister encourage his department, and encourage his department to encourage local authorities, to produce the kind of information that ordinary people can understand, which will show them in easily understood, ready-reckoner terms what they will be in for if they need long-term care?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I absolutely agree with the noble Baroness on how important this is. It is quite complex to explain the whole system in words. The system will depend on the operation of a sliding scale which, by its nature, is difficult to describe other than pictorially. Nevertheless, the basics of the rules of these funding arrangements are straightforward and can be described. They are, as the Statement described, two essential elements, being the maximum level that people have to pay for their care—which we are setting at £61,000 in 2010 prices; £75,000 in 2017—and the means test, which is £100,000.

Of course, there are nuances around that, such as around couples and how the system will work for them. That is a question that the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, asked me which I did not answer. At present, a couple could potentially face two sets of unlimited care costs. By protecting them from these costs, the reforms offer them significant benefits which need to be spelt out. In most circumstances, even if a couple both had care costs at £75,000, the level of the cap, they would contribute less than this because housing assets do not count towards the means test if one of the partners remains resident in the home. All those sorts of things need to be made clear. We will do our very best to work with others to ensure that these messages have not only the greatest clarity but the greatest coverage.