Government’s care cap announcement: CCN responds

The government has announced it will not bring forward proposals for a care cap in 2020, as originally set out in the Care Act.

LaingBuisson’s recent study for CCN outlined the financial impact of a cap in counties. You can download that report here.

Cllr Colin Noble, CCN’s Health & Social Care Spokesman, said:

“The County Councils Network supports the principle of capping the costs people may pay for their care. No individual should be faced with catastrophic care costs as a result of the onset of conditions which are outside of their control.

 “LaingBuisson’s recent modelling for the network showed that implementing a national cap set at the £72,000 proposed in the Care Act could result in an annual cost of up to £330m for county authorities. Because the proposed cap did not take into account regional differences in the cost of care, the research revealed it could have led to a ‘postcode lottery’ on care costs. For example, someone living in the south-east would reach the cap within three years of being in a care home, whilst other areas with a lower cost of living would take double that time period to reach the cap.

“Therefore, government must outline fully-funded proposals to make a care cap work for all four corners of the country in next summer’s green paper.

 “At the same time, any reforms outlined in that review will take a number of years to come to fruition. It is widely acknowledged that adult social care is in the midst of a funding crisis now, with counties predicated to face a budget shortfall of over £1bn in adult social care by 2021. This must be addressed by government through extra resource for local authorities.”