Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the current capital threshold of £23,250 for eligibility for local authority support with residential care costs.

The capital limits for support with adult social care costs are reviewed annually. The rates for the next financial year (2026/27) will be published via a Local Authority Circular in due course.

The capital limits represent minimum thresholds, and local authorities retain discretion to apply higher limits if they choose, provided they act in accordance with the Care Act 2014.

Additionally, we have launched an independent Commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service.

The Commission's Terms of Reference are sufficiently broad to enable Baroness Casey to define its remit to independently consider how to build a social care system fit for the future, including looking into capital limits as she sees fit.