Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the number of people who would have to sell their home to pay for care under the proposed £86,000 cap on lifetime care costs.

Fewer people will be unable to pay for social care without selling their home due to the reforms to the social care charging system compared to the existing system. These reforms will complement the existing system which allows people in need of residential care to defer payment of their care home fees so that they or their families do not have to sell their home during their lifetime. The value of a person’s main home can only be taken into account if they are drawing on care in a residential home and no partner or eligible family member remains in their own home.

In designing these reforms, the Government has prioritised a more generous means-testing system, which benefits those with low to moderate wealth. From October 2023, people with less than £100,000 of chargeable assets are now likely to receive financial help from the state, whereas currently many of these people pay for all their own care. This is more than four times the existing threshold of £23,250.