Lansley warns on cost of Dilnot social care proposals

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has told MPs that ministers need to “consider carefully” the “significant costs” of proposals to reform social care in England detailed in a report by economist Andrew Dilnot.

In a Commons statement on 4 July 2011, Mr Lansley said he welcomed the review, which suggests that social care costs should be capped at £35,000 and council-funded care should be provided to people with under £100,000 in assets.

Currently, the threshold for council-funded help is £23,250.

Mr Lansley told MPs: “We will now take forward consideration of the commission’s recommendations as a priority.

“The commission recognised that implementing their reforms would have significant costs which the government will need to consider against other funding priorities and calls on constrained resources.

“In the current public spending environment, we have to consider carefully the additional cost to the taxpayer of the commission’s proposals against other funding priorities.”

Shadow health secretary John Healey emphasised that Labour was willing to work with the government towards a consensus on social care.

He said: “Our concern was and is to protect the one in 10 of us who have to pay over £100,000 for the cost of our care in older age.

“Our concern was and is to protect those hard-working people on modest incomes who are more likely to care for family relatives and a lot less likely to get any help in doing so.

“Our concern was and is to protect people from the lottery of where they live, not what they need determining their assessment for care and level of support.”