Ministers set to cap bill for personal care imposed on elderly

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has offered the strongest hint yet that the Government will accept calls for a cap on the amount individuals have to spend on personal care in their old age.

Mr Lansley said yesterday he expects to give a “very positive” reception to the long-awaited Dilnot Commission report into the future of long-term social care, which will be published later today and is set to put such a cap at the heart of its strategy.

But wrangles are now likely to begin over the exact level of the cap and how it will be paid for.

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Economist Andrew Dilnot is widely expected to propose a limit in his report of between £30,000 and £50,000 on the total amount individuals and their families pay for personal care.

The state will then pick up the bill for anything above this level – at an estimated cost of £2bn or more a year.

Other recommendations are likely to include national standards to end the “postcode lottery” in care.

Another suggestion could bring a more generous threshold for means-tested state support, which is currently available only to those with assets worth less than £23,250.

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On Saturday the Yorkshire Post revealed the huge disparities of care available within this region alone, with councils given the flexibility to decide who is entitled to state support.

Charities are calling on politicians to ensure that Dilnot’s proposals are not kicked into the long grass, and both David Cameron and Ed Miliband have indicated they are willing to enter cross-party talks on the issue.

Mr Miliband has written to the Prime Minister and his Liberal Democrat deputy Nick Clegg offering to drop Labour’s support for a levy on the estates of the deceased to pay for care – derided by Tories as a “Death Tax” – in the hope of reaching consensus.

But Chancellor George Osborne remains reluctant for the Treasury to pick up the tab for reform, and Mr Lansley today appeared to

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