Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that local authorities will have funds available to meet the recommendations of the Dilnot Commission; and how funding will be linked to local levels of need.

The Government remains committed to introducing a cap on care costs and extension of means tested support, which will be implemented from April 2020.

The Spending Review 2015 set budgets for the next four years to 2019-20. The final year includes funding to cover the costs of local authorities preparing to implement the changes the following year. Decisions about the allocation of funding for these reforms will be confirmed nearer the time.

The Department will continue to develop the policy underpinning the cap on care costs in the run-up to a consultation on draft regulations and guidance in the summer of 2018. The Department will work closely with the sector to ensure that their views are taken into account as we plan for implementation.

In addition to the cap on care costs, the Dilnot commission recommended the introduction of national eligibility criteria and universal Deferred Payment Agreements, both of which have been implemented from April 2015.