Care will be free under plan

Author: The Times - Mar 30, 2010

Elderly people who have been in residential care for two years will have the costs paid for the rest of their lives under Labour plans to reshape the welfare state, The Times has learnt.

The £1 billion proposal is aimed at allowing thousands of families to keep their homes and savings. It is seen as a key step towards creating a comprehensive national care service.

Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, will commit Labour today to providing a system of universal care for the elderly funded by compulsory contributions from all.

He will disappoint some charities for the elderly, however, by postponing key decisions on funding and asking a cross-party commission to take charge of the issue. Although a re-elected Labour government would legislate for a compulsory system in the next parliament, such a system would not come into force until the following one.

Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, indicated last night that the Government had moved away from the swift imposition of an estate levy, characterised by the Tories as a "death tax".

But Mr Burnham, in an interview with The Times, billed the scheme as the biggest shake-up of the welfare state since 1948. "If people need care and support, they get it," he said.

Labour will use the policy, unveiled in a White Paper today, to argue that it boasts big ideas for a fourth term.

Mr Burnham said that people would be able to choose from a range of options on how they pay for long-term care — to be drawn up by the commission. Proposals already discussed include people making contributions into a fund during their working life, or diverting some pension benefits after 65, or facing a 10 per cent levy on the value of their estate. It is understood that ministers are also exploring the idea that people on benefits should make contributions from their welfare payments.

Mr Burnham said that extending the principles of the NHS to long-term care for the elderly was Labour’s answer to "the biggest single domestic policy challenge that the country faces"

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