Plea for funding of long-term social care

People need to be able to protect themselves against the loss of almost all their assets and their homes if they need long-term care, according to Andrew Dilnot, head of the government’s inquiry into a new system for funding social care.

Any solution, however, could be a mix of public, private and voluntary funding as it does now, he said. The Dilnot commission will take a hard look at the £50bn ($78bn) that the NHS spends on the over-65s and the £80bn spent on social security benefits for the same age group, as well as the £8bn spent directly on social care.

The different funding streams “need to be coherent and aligned,” he said. “They need to work together effectively.”

Issuing a call for evidence, Mr Dilnot said: “We believe any reformed system will continue to be a partnership in its broadest sense – with both individuals and the state continuing to contribute to the costs of care and support”. It must also acknowledge the big contribution made by carers, he said.

Even in Scotland, which provides free personal care to the elderly, there was still significant private spending and much informal support, noted Mr Dilnot.

He added that some means needed to be found to allow people to protect themselves against the future costs of care and support.

“People can insure themselves against many of the major risks in life: of your house burning down, or someone driving into your car, or against illness through the National Health Service.

“But very few can insure themselves against the risks of needing care for a long time. In effect, people self-insure. They are unable to benefit from any sort of risk pooling, which would reduce the overall costs by sharing the risks across more people.”

The commission had yet to reach a view on whether that risk pooling should be public or private or a mix of the two, he said.

“That judgement is still absolutely open,” he said, adding that the commission is interested in the arguments for a public solution and for evidence from the private sector about why there is no real market for long-term care protection.