The problem with the Tory policy on care, laid out in their manifesto, is that the consequences simply don’t seem to have been properly thought through.
Currently, unlike those living in care homes, people who receive care at home do not have the value of their home included in their qualifying assets to determine how much they should pay towards their own care. But in future, assuming the Tories are re-elected, they will do.
Which means that many thousands of people receiving care at home will be forced to pay more for their care – in many cases, substantially more.
Which in turn means that many of these people (or their families) will decide that being in a care home is a better option. (Precisely the opposite outcome which successive governments have sought to encourage.)
But increased demand for care home beds, in an already crowded market, will result in only one thing – increased prices.
Therefore, people in need of care lose out financially either way, whether they stay at home or move into a care home.
So the government’s headline promise to raise the total value of personal assets from £23,250 to £100,000 below which people have to fully fund their own care is more of a publicity seeking veneer than substantive policy.
Moreover, the £72,000 cap that an individual would have to pay for care during their lifetime, deferred by the current government from 2015, and promised for 2020, has quietly and shamefully been abandoned.
How can families possibly be expected to plan sensibly and prudently for their future care when they can’t trust the government to stick by its stated policies? It. No wonder that substantial numbers of Tory MP’s are up in arms about what they rightly see as another stealth tax.
