Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing an £86,000 cap on care home costs before 2025.

In January 2022, the Government published an impact assessment for introducing an £86,000 cap on personal care costs and extending the means test in October 2023.

This applied to both residential and domiciliary care. As announced in the Autumn Statement, we listened to the concerns of local government and took the difficult decision to delay the planned adult social care charging reforms.

The funding intended for charging reform has been retained in local authority budgets to address current pressures and ensure that local authorities have the capacity and system readiness to deliver reform successfully.

The impact assessment is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1044903/adult-social-care-charging-reform-impact-assessment.pdf