A care cost cap and how to pay for it

Sir Andrew Dilnot feels it is “entirely reasonable” for people over retirement age to pay National Insurance contributions in order to help meet the estimated £10 billion a year cost of overhauling Britain’s social care system.

The main recommendation of the Dilnot Report, commissioned by the Coalition government in 2010, was a cap on social care costs of £35,000, but while its implementation has been postponed several times, Dilnot still believes a cap should be available to everybody and continues to view it as entirely appropriate that a large part of the money needed to pay for it should come from the older population.

Sir Andrew has always argued that older people shouldn’t be charged directly for the social care they receive but that "they should make some kind of contribution so that that if they are one of the unlucky ones, their care would be covered."

He argues that funds for social care above the cap should come from general taxation and in his eyes the most obvious candidate for change is the biggest tax break that many older people benefit from, namely not having to pay National Insurance contributions once they reach the state pension age.

Source: Make pensioners pay national insurance to help fund social care, says Sir Andrew Dilnot. DT 16.7.21 and SOLLA.