Frances Ross, product manager for care at Partnership, picks through the fine print of the Care Act and explains what impact it has on your advice.
The small print and themes in the Care Act are likely to have an impact on care fees planning, especially in light of the recent decision to delay the introduction of the second tranche of legislation to 2020.
The government announced it was delaying implementing its cap on long-term care until 2020, as it is too expensive, in a letter sent by Alistair Burt, MP for community and social care, back in July.
The £72,000 care cap was set to be introduced in April 2016, however this will now be delayed by four years.
A letter sent by Alistair Burt, MP for community and social care to councillor Izzi Seccombe, chair of the Local Government Association, dated 17 July stated: “The proposals to cap care costs and create a supporting private insurance market were expected to add £6bn to public sector spending over the next five years.
“A time of consolidation is not the right moment to be implementing expensive new commitments such as this, especially when there are no indications the private insurance market will develop as expected.”
1. We are all in union, aren’t we?
While the Care Act looked to standardise the approach to the provision and funding of care, this only applies to England. Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland have different approaches and some of them are quite disparate.
For example, in each of these areas you pay for your care if you have assets over:
• England £23,250;
• Wales £23,750;
• Northern Ireland £23,250; and
• Scotland £25,250
But in Scotland, the ‘personal care’ you receive in a care home is free if you are over 65, so depending on how much of the annual cost (average - £29,3802) is attributed to this, your client could pay substantially less.
2. Eligibility criteria – flexible?
The first tranche of legislation in April 2015 introduced the concept that to qualify for state support, people need to have substantial or critical needs.
Prior to this, each local authority set the criteria in their area which meant that neighbours with similar needs might receive different levels of financial support.
While the system is now standardised, councils do have some discretion so if they have, for example, previously supported someone who now doesn’t qualify, they can continue helping them.
However, this is a grey area and with budget cuts, there may well be unwelcome changes.
3. Asset thresholds will not change.
