Chancellor Jeremy Hunt squirmed this morning as he was confronted with his 2013 pledge to cap “unfair” costs for social care – the day after he shelved it in another devastating delay for families.
Mr Hunt, who yesterday delivered his controversial Autumn Statement, announced that a long-delayed plan for care homes, an £86,000 lifetime cap on how much anyone would need to pay for care – was delayed for two years.
It had been due to kick in from October next year, with the move prompting widespread criticism.
Today BBC Breakfast presenter Charlie Stayt read out words from a government press release from 2013, when Mr Hunt was Health Secretary.
Mr Hunt claimed nine years ago that soaring costs which were forcing people to sell their homes to come up with the cash for care had been “ducked by successive governments”.
He branded it an “unfair system” and said it was a “watershed” when proposals were put forward for fairer social care funding.
Nearly a decade ago Mr Hunt said: “This is a watershed moment for the country.
(
BBC Breakfast)
“For too long the issue of social care has been ducked by successive governments leading to an unfair system that has seen people selling their homes and losing nearly everything.
“With us that unfairness is ending.”
More than a decade ago the Dilnot Report, led by Andrew Dilnot, recommended a sweeping shake-up of the way social care is paid for to prevent family savings being wiped out.
Boris Johnson had been set to bring the recommendations forward, but Mr Hunt has delayed these.
In response Mr Hunt said it was not “easy” for him to delay the social care cap, which he insisted he “passionately did not want to do”.
He said: “I don’t pretend this was an easy thing for me to do given what I said in 2013 but it does mean we can give overall a bigger increase to social care than it’s ever had in its history.
“Some of those decisions are very hard for me as Chancellor. I’m a Conservative Chancellor that has put up taxes, I’ve had to delay those Dilnot reforms to social care which is something I passionately did not want to do.
“But I’m doing it because we face an international economic crisis and I recognise that people are worried about the future and I’m prepared to do difficult things even if they’re things I wouldn’t personally choose to do, because they’re the right thing for the country.”
The Alzheimer’s Society previously insisted the Government “must not roll back on the care cap”.
Associate director of advocacy Mark MacDonald said: “This social care reform was a crucial first step to tackle catastrophic care costs, limiting the amount people had to pay towards their care.
“People with dementia are the biggest users of social care – at least 70% of care home users have dementia – and this delay would be a damaging blow at a time when many of them will be struggling with bills and need action on the cost of care too.”
Silver Voices director Dennis Reed said: “There is a grim inevitability about the likely delay in implementing the social care cap; the history of the last decade has been one of proposed legislation being suspended and then scrapped, leaving the social care crisis to get worse.
“The grandiose claim of Boris Johnson that he ‘fixed’ social care was always bogus but there were two elements to his policy.”