Andrew Dilnot, the principal of St Hugh’s College, Oxford, chaired the commission into funding of care and support. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian
The amount of money that people will have to pay towards the cost of their care in old age could still be capped at £35,000 after an apparent U-turn by the coalition government.
The Dilnot Commission on funding of care and support recommended the £35,000 limit on the cost to the individual when it published its findings in July last year, but ministers including the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, indicated last month that the proposal would be shelved because of the £2bn cost to the Treasury.
But now the plans have been revived, according to a senior Whitehall source who confirmed the government was planning to implement the Dilnot recommendations, but claimed they had never been officially off the table.
They will be formally announced in the autumn as part of a coalition relaunch and will be included in a care and support bill. A draft version has already been published and will now be amended to accommodate the Dilnot recommendations.
Intensive discussions have been going on behind the scenes between Downing Street, the Department of Health and the Treasury to finalise the details of the scheme which could be implemented as early as 2017. The plans were discussed by the quad – David Cameron, Nick Clegg, George Osborne and Danny Alexander – at a dinner last Friday night, according to reports.
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but still to much we work all our lives paying into the system some never having to claim a penny.but old age comes and we end up inside being look after and its going to cost us how wonderfull they are to us this bloody lot jeff3
another u-turn well well lets face it get them in a panic and who knows lets keep them on the run even though they said no more u-turns never say never just turn up the heat and expose them for the lairs they are and make their lives a misery…what these bastards deserve…regards..sandra.
Everybody needs an independent life at the old age, and this case if the cost for home care will be this much high then how we will be able to afford it.
We really expect that these services must be cheap and affordable.
We are expecting some revolutionary steps by goverment in this field.