1
View
comments
Boris Johnson’s social care cap will help just 5 per cent of elderly people receiving care, economists warned last night.
It will take them at least three years to rack up bills to reach the limit – and because it starts in 2023, it would be 2026 before they reap the benefit.
It also emerged that as much as half of total care home bills may be excluded from the £86,000 cap, landing families with tens of thousands of pounds extra to pay.
So-called ‘hotel costs’ in care homes – which include accommodation, food and heating – are not included.
As only half of the bill counts towards the cap, by the time a pensioner gets to £86,000 they will have spent double that amount – £172,000.
Boris Johnson’s social care cap will help just 5 per cent of elderly people receiving care, economists warned last night
Critics say it means some people will still have to sell their homes to pay for care despite the ceiling. On top of this, only the most frail will qualify for state-funded care because town halls turn down more than half of requests because their needs are not deemed ‘substantial’ enough.
The Prime Minister’s lifetime cap on personal care costs, announced on Tuesday, is higher than charities wanted.
Analysts LaingBuisson said it meant just one in 20 of the 800,000 elderly people in residential care or receiving care in their own homes would benefit. That is just 40,000 individuals. Director William Laing said the figures were so low because it would take three years in a care home to meet
