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Elderly care costs

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The £72,000 cap on elderly care costs in England, due to be introduced in 2016, will benefit one in eight people, the government has said. The revelation came as the government set out details about how it will work. It confirmed there would be a deferred payment scheme under which the local council would pay care fees and claim them back from the estate after death. Labour said the details would not help elderly and disabled people struggling to get the support they needed now. 

Ministers say the cap on costs is a solution to the elderly care crisis, but the level at which the cap is being set is nearly twice what was recommended once inflation has been taken into account, meaning the numbers benefiting will be restricted. The modelling provided by the government as it launched a consultation on the plans showed it was likely to be four years after the implementation of the changes until the first significant groups of those aged 65 and over would start to hit the cap. And because people tend not to live for very long once they have reached the level of need that takes them over the cap, the actual numbers benefiting will be in the tens of thousands at any one time. Care Minister Norman Lamb said the cap was never going to be the “panacea” for the problems facing the system.
(Source: BBC news)