Conservative Manifesto: Adult social care

“What we also see is that those people who... have done the right thing and saved through their lives [for adult social care], and are worried that savings will dwindle to nothing, we’re quadrupling the threshold at which assets will be protected to that £100,000.”

• Whether your local authority pays for your social care depends partly on how much money you have. If you have less than £23,250 you can be paid for (in part or in full). If not, you pay for yourself.
• If you are in residential care 'how much money you have' can include the value of your home.
• If you are cared for at home, it doesn't.
• The Conservatives propose that the cut off point should change from £23,250 to £100,000.
• They also propose that the value of your home should be counted whether you are still living in it or not.
• As the average home in England is worth £236,000, that means that people receiving social care at home may find themselves above the means test threshold, when before they might not have been.
• Sir Andrew Dilnot, who chaired a commission into adult social care in 2011, said today that “what’s being done on the means test will help some people though many people, the majority of people who are getting care—not in a residential care home but in their own homes—will find themselves worse off.”
• People meeting certain criteria would be able to defer payments on their care. This is “essentially a loan given by the local authority secured on the value of the person’s property”, according to the House of Commons Library.
• Councils can charge a fee for this, as well as interest on the loan during a person's lifetime. The council’s loan can be repaid in three ways: the full amount of this loan is paid back by the person or on their behalf, from the sale of the property, or from the value of the person’s estate after their death.