After years of waiting, an announcement has finally been made to limit the amount we pay for our Social Care. The Prime Minister has today committed that no one will have to pay more that £86,000 for their lifetime care needs and instead of having to meet all the costs when savings are above £20,000, contributions will be means tested when assets are between £20,000 and £100,000.
With increases to National Insurance and dividend tax being introduced to fund a wider range of health and care reforms, this looks to be one of the biggest changes to our system in more than a generation.
Details of the proposals are still emerging but it does appear that the taxes being raised will not only be used to fund the care cap but also to increase the weekly fees paid by councils to care providers, potentially reducing the reliance on fee top ups and on staff training and development.
Part of the money raised will also be used to help the NHS recover from the treatment backlog created by the pandemic.
As we know from past experience, the devil is in the detail and we have a number of concerns that the proposals may not quite offer the benefits which the headlines suggest.
We will be looking at the announcement in more detail and over the coming days and weeks we will be posting our assessment of what the reforms might mean in practice.