Operational guidance to implement a lifetime cap on care costs
Applies to England
Read the full outcome
Detail of outcome
Following an announcement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 29 July 2024, the planned adult social care charging reforms, which were inherited from the previous government, will not be taken forward in October 2025.
From 4 March to 1 April 2022, the government carried out a public consultation seeking views on draft statutory guidance setting out how a cap on care costs would operate in practice. The responses to the consultation have helped to refine the guidance. They will also help the government understand how it can support local authorities as they prepare to implement the charging reforms from October 2023.
The above documents are:
- the formal government response to the ‘supporting local preparation’ part of the consultation
- the formal government response to the ‘implementing the cap on care costs’ part of the consultation
- the revised draft operational guidance ‘Implementing the cap on care costs’, with the responses from the consultation taken on board – this document will become part of the Care and support statutory guidance in October 2023 when the charging reforms are implemented
As part of our response to the ‘supporting local preparation’ part of the consultation, the document ‘Supporting local preparation: draft guidance’ (see below) has now been revised and published as part of the Care and support statutory guidance (see chapter 23, ‘Charging reform: guidance on supporting local preparation’).
As set out in the response to the ‘implementing the cap on care costs’ part of the consultation, we will shortly publish further changes to Annex A of the Care and support statutory guidance on choice of accommodation.
Original consultation
Consultation description
On 7 September 2021, the Prime Minister announced that from October 2023, the government will introduce a new £86,000 cap on the amount anyone in England will need to spend on their personal care over their lifetime.
The main purpose of this consultation is to seek views on the statutory guidance which sets out how a cap on care costs would operate in practice, as well as to inform how government can support local authorities in their preparations for its implementation from October 2023.
It is important that the guidance for local authorities is clear and operable so that local authority officials and other stakeholders are able to prepare successfully for implementation of this reform.
Documents
Updates to this page
Last updated 16 January 2023 + show all updates
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Added a note stating that, following an announcement in the government’s Autumn Statement 2022, the planned adult social care charging reforms are now delayed until October 2025.
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Added the formal government response to the ‘implementing the cap on care costs’ part of the consultation, along with revised draft operational guidance on implementing the cap on care costs, with the responses from the consultation taken on board.
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Added the government response to the ‘supporting local preparation’ part of the consultation.
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Added a link to the easy read version of the consultation.
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First published.