Dilnot proposes cap on social care bills for elderly

The state must do more to fund the cost of social care in old age, the chairman of an independent review has said.

Andrew Dilnot, whose commission is due to report to the government in July, told the Financial Times that one of its central recommendations would likely be the introduction of a cap on the amount elderly people should contribute to their social care.

The report, due out ahead of new legislation on social care funding next year, will therefore push for bigger state contributions. “The state needs to increase its offer,” Dilnot said.

However, he ruled out recommending an entirely tax-funded system “because we don’t think it will happen, and even if it did … I don’t think it would last”.

Dilnot, a former director of the Institute For Fiscal Studies, said one solution could be for taxpayers to cover the “tail end” risk whereby people run up huge social care bills, sometimes amounting to hundreds of thousands of pounds.

By taking away the “catastrophic risk” of escalating bills, the financial services industry may then be encouraged to play a bigger role in supporting the funding system, he added.

He suggested that there is currently great “uncertainty and fear” around social care, with some elderly people having to use and sell most of their assets to pay for it.

When asked about the likelihood that the state would cover more of the funding risk, Dilnot said: “While it will require more public funds, we think they will not be so large that the Treasury will feel they cannot do it.”

Southern Cross, the struggling care home operator, is among those to have called for major reforms to the current system of social care funding.