There has been no mention by Conservatives or Labour of social care at party conferences, provider Aegon has said, and is calling for all parties to make their future plans for social care funding clear as part of manifesto commitments.   

 

Aegon’s research, Second 50, found only a quarter of working people have factored social care expenses into their retirement plans, yet political parties are not saying how social care should be funded going forward. 
 

The Conservative government’s social care funding deal was originally meant to start this month, before the government announced a two-year delay last autumn. This means it will now not be in force before the next general election, creating uncertainty about what will happen. 

 

Pensions director Steven Cameron said without clarity on social care funding, it was difficult for people to plan ahead.

 

“With each generation living longer on average, we’re increasingly likely to face this expense, which can have a huge impact on our later life finances,” he said. 

 

“As social care and its funding is such a crucial concern for millions of elderly people and their families, we are urging all political parties to make their plans clear to future voters," said Cameron.

 

“The Conservatives have been quiet on the topic since last autumn’s delay, and it would be good to have confirmation that they still plan to implement if elected. Labour has not yet made its plans known but would likely wish to adapt the Conservative solution," he observed.

The Liberal Democrats have said they would provide free care to all, but Cameron said this was likely to exclude ‘hotel costs’, which can be significant. 

 

“We are urging all political parties to give this the attention it deserves and to come clean on future plans.” 

 

Under the delayed social care funding reforms for England, people would still have to pay for daily living costs, but there would be a cap of £86,000 on how much an individual would be asked to pay for care costs, regardless of their assets. Those with less than £20,000 would have their care costs covered by taxpayers, while currently this threshold is at £14,250. The state would also contribute towards costs for those with assets of up to £100,000 – right now, anyone with assets over £23,250 is ineligible for support.  

 

However, in a controversial move, the government changed the law last year so that a local authority’s contribution towards someone’s care costs does not count towards the cap, affecting mainly people in less wealthy areas of England. 

 

The planned reforms would mean the proportion of older people in care receiving state support would increase from about half to about two-thirds. 

 

Based on the now delayed implementation date of 2023, the government estimated the annual cost of the reforms to increase to £4.74bn by 2031-32 (in 2021-22 prices).