14/07/2011

The Commission’s report was published on 4 July 2011.

The Dilnot Commission accepts that the current system ‘is not fit for purpose’. People face a postcode lottery, no national consistency, and harsh means-testing with all assets above £23,000 (including your home) used to pay for care. Many disabled people go without the support they need to live with dignity and engage equally in society. Radical improvement is desperately needed.

The Commission’s report proposes some good individual changes, such as security of funded support for disabled people below the age of 40 and portable assessments. Individual lifetime contributions towards the cost of care would be capped and the means-test threshold raised.

However, adult social care would remain dependent on means-testing and be reliant on the growth of private insurance providers. It would be vulnerable to government policy shifts: for example, changes to the means-test threshold would radically alter the impact. The government has already indicated it thinks these proposals as they stand are too costly so we can envisage a fight over where the means-test and contributions levels are set.

These recommendations, as they stand, would offer security to many who are currently denied help. But they are a far cry from a tax funded, free at the point of use, system that is needed and would be fairer all round. The report rejects a fully funded system of social care on cost grounds. We think this is a matter of priorities.

You can download our information paper from the column on the right hand side:

You can download the report of the Commission on Funding of Care and Support by visiting the following website: www.dilnotcommission.dh.gov.uk/2011/07/04