Joseph Rowntree Plan For Social Care
A four-point plan to make social care fairer and more transparent ahead of wider reforms has been unveiled by one of the nation’s most respected social policy research organisations.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has spelled out how some of the pressures on the current system could be alleviated.
Options for Care Funding: What could be done now? has been published ahead of changes expected in the upcoming Department for Health green paper.
The report calls for a package of measures costed at a combined £775m per year that would allow elderly and sick people to receive more joined-up care and better use their own resources to pay for vital help.
The plan calls for:
- An equity release scheme for homeowners to defer the cost of care at home until their property is eventually sold. (Annual cost: £33m)
- Doubling the savings threshold for care home fees from £22,250 to £42,500. (Annual cost: £280m)
- Boost dignity by doubling the current £21.90 personal expenses limit for council-supported care-home residents. (Annual cost: £250m)
- Give free personal care for all people who need nursing care, removing inconsistencies between individual funding and NHS funding.(Annual cost: £212m)
Report author Sue Collins said that at a time when everyone, including the government, agreed that a new long-term funding system was required for social care, the proposals were an affordable way of meeting current needs.
“It may be a decade before a new system is in place,” she said.
“These reforms could quickly make a difference to older people and their carers struggling to cope under the present system.”
