The government announced last week that the upper and lower capital limits, which determine who must pay the full cost of their care and how much others should pay from their assets, will remain at the same level in 2019-20 as they have done since 2010-11.
Due to this, social care experts have warned that the failure to increase financial thresholds could force more older people into paying the full price for their residential care.
Simon Bottery, Senior Fellow at the King’s Fund, has said:-
“Even in 2010/11, the thresholds weren’t generous and, essentially, by not raising them, and allowing them to drift down and not increase in line with inflation, the thresholds are gradually becoming less and less generous, or more and more mean depending on how you look at it,”
There is no doubt that the government’s decision will be an additional strain on the social care system. One that is already in a crisis.