BBC News – Social care reforms: Councils raise funding concerns

[Legal Beagles]

Plans to cap the amount of money people in England spend on their social care could be jeopardised by a lack of funding, councils say. Reforms to the adult social care system will cap the amount some people pay towards their care at £72,000 and allow them to apply for council funding. But a poll […]

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[enaid]

Re: BBC News – Social care reforms: Councils raise funding concerns

Don't be fooled by the £72,000 cap on this new scheme.

Pensioners putting their faith in the Government to limit care fees are “in for a shock”, experts warn today.

Actuaries have calculated that the average bill they will have to pay could be almost double the value of the new cap.

The fine print of the latest rules suggest that only one in 13 men and one in seven women will benefit from the much vaunted announcement that care fees will be limited to £72,000 per person.

In an analysis, the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) said much of what people pay for care will not be covered by the cap. That includes not only bed and board fees for those in nursing homes but also a significant slice of the direct care costs for those who have to pay their own bills. It means only a few elderly people would survive long enough to benefit from the cap. Those who do will have run up £140,000 on average before qualifying, with some spending as much as £250,000, the institute claims.

Age UK said the report backed its own warnings that the “fanfare” over the reforms risked leaving millions sleepwalking into a crisis.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/he...home-fees.html