Damian Green, former first secretary of state, and current chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Longevity, has made a series of recommendations to ensure the adequate funding of social care.
Green’s proposals come ahead of the government’s long-awaited green paper, publication of which has been repeatedly delayed.
A joint report by the House of Commons Health and Local Government Select Committees last year estimated the funding gap for social care will between £2.2bn and£2.5bn in 2019-20, with the pressure relentlessly rising as the population ages.
Green’s proposals contained in ‘Fixing the Care Crisis’, a paper for the Centre for Policy Studies, call for £2.75bn to be made available immediately, which he suggests could be financed by taxing the winter fuel allowance for the over-65s, a 1% surcharge on national insurance paid by the over-50s, or savings made in other areas of public spending.
Green’s plan drops the 2017 Conservative manifesto commitment under which people would be allowed to keep £100,000 in assets, whatever the costs of their care – a plan which became known as the ‘dementia tax’.
In the longer term, the government should be responsible for a new Universal Care Entitlement, to be supplemented by an optional Care Supplement, financed by voluntary payments.
