Jeremy Hunt dashes hopes of early reform of social care funding system

Health secretary says £1.7bn costs of cap on individual liability for care costs would be unaffordable

The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has dashed hopes of any early reform of the social care funding system by declaring the costs unaffordable.

Although he told the Conservative party conference on Tuesday that the government would introduce a cap on individual care costs “as soon as we are able”, the minister said later that the £1.7bn bill for the scheme proposed by the Dilnot commission could not be met.

Addressing a conference fringe meeting, Hunt said: “How can we reduce that £1.7bn cost? That is the most important question on this.”

The commission led by economist Andrew Dilnot last year tabled proposals for a £35,000 cap on individual liability for care costs and an increase from £23,250 to £100,000 in the asset threshold beyond which the state makes no contribution.

Ministers say they accept the principle of a cap, which would account for most of the £1.7bn costs in the first full year of such a scheme, but the Treasury is said to be blocking the go-ahead.

Speaking to the fringe meeting, Hunt said the idea of cap was “brilliant” and “the right way forward”. But funding could be found only by making cuts in other areas of government spending and £1.7bn was too much to ask.

Claiming there was “a huge amount of inefficiency” in the health and care system, he said he would be looking to the sector to volunteer savings to set off against the cost – and warned that implementation was unlikely to come soon.

“It might be that the right solution takes time, a period of years, to get to,” he said. “I think people would rather see us choose the right solution but have perhaps a slightly longer timescale than we would hope, but have some certainty and clarity that we were going to get there.”

Indicating that the issue remained deadlocked in Whitehall, Hunt added: “We need to make more progress inside the government before we have [further] public debate.”

Cutting the cost of the Dilnot plan would involve raising the level of the cap, lowering the threshold or, as Hunt’s predecessor, Andrew Lansley, mooted in July, making the cap a voluntary scheme that people opted into.

Asked about a voluntary scheme, Hunt said: “I have heard arguments for and against, but we will look at all options.”

Helena Herklots, chief executive of charity Carers UK, said no such voluntary scheme existed anywhere in the world. The Dilnot commission had been clear that the plan had to be comprehensive in order to properly pool risk.

Although it was encouraging that Hunt had been positive about the principle of a cap, Herklots said, “the worry is whether there is the political will on the part of government to make this happen”.