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Adult social care in England: capping adult social care cost
On 7 September 2021, the government set out its new plan for adult social care reform in England. This included a lifetime cap on the amount anyone in England will need to spend on their personal care, alongside a more generous means-test for local authority financial support.
The government has set out further detail on the workings of the new charging reform framework and confirms key outstanding policy details, including the standard level at which ‘daily living costs, will initially be set.
Summary
Summary
From October 2023, the government will introduce a new £86,000 cap on the amount anyone in England will need to spend on their personal care over their lifetime.
In addition, the upper capital limit (UCL), the point at which people become eligible to receive some financial support from their local authority, will rise to £100,000 from the current £23,250. As a result, people with less than £100,000 of chargeable assets will never contribute more than 20% of these assets per year. The UCL of £100,000 will apply universally, irrespective of the circumstances or setting in which an individual receives care, making it a much more generous offer than a previous proposal in 2015. The lower capital limit (LCL), the threshold below which people will not have to pay anything for their care from their assets will increase to £20,000 from £14,250.
It is important that the new reforms are clear and reduce complexity. Therefore, the government will introduce an amendment to the Care Act 2014 to the way that people within the means test progress towards the cap. This amendment, subject to Parliamentary approval, will ensure that only the amount that the individual contributes towards these costs will count towards the cap on care costs, and people do not reach the cap at an artificially faster rate than what they contribute. The much more generous means test is the main means of helping people with lower levels of assets.
To allow people receiving means-tested support to keep more of their own income, the government will unfreeze the Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) for those receiving care in their own homes and Personal Expenses Allowance (PEA) for care home residents, so that from April 2022 they will both rise in line with inflation.
The cap will not cover the daily living costs (DLCs) for people in care homes, and people will remain responsible for their daily living costs throughout their care journey, including after they reach the cap. For simplicity, these costs will be set at a national, notional amount of £200 per week. DLCs are a notional amount to reflect that a proportion of residential care fees are not directly linked to personal care, like rent, food and utility bills and would have had to be paid wherever someone lives. This is in line with the Commission on Funding of Care and Support’s 2011 recommendation. The £200 level is £30 less than a proposal set out in 2015, ensuring people get to keep more of their income and assets.
The case studies included in the government’s health and social care command paper to illustrate the positive impact of these reforms were based on the details set out above. They can also be found at the end of this document. By setting out and explaining these details, it will be possible to replicate the calculations.
