What now for social care funding and winter fuel payments?
There are two features of the announcement from the incoming Chancellor Rachel Reeves in July 2024 that will particularly affect older people.
Winter fuel payments
Payments to help with the cost of energy have been made annually in the autumn to those of pension age. This has not been means tested to date, so recipients have included ex-pats and frequently those living in care facilities while still owning their own homes.
This is now to change. Pensioners in England and Wales not on pension credit or other means-tested benefits will no longer get the winter fuel payments, worth between £100 and £300. That means payments will be scrapped for around 10 million pensioners. The change won’t affect those over 80, who will continue to receive the payment. The picture in Scotland and Northern Ireland is yet to be clarified.
MoneySavingExpert Martin Lewis is concerned that it will be those whose income is just above the limit for receiving benefit that will suffer the most.
It’s another very good reason to apply for pension credit, which opens the way to many other benefits. There are thousands of people who could receive pension credit but have not applied for it – mostly out of pride say charities. The application for pension credit has numerous questions, so be prepared to help out those who might find it hard-going.
Cap on social care costs
Those receiving care have been waiting a long time for a cap on costs since the idea was first championed by Andrew Dilnott.
A cap of £86,000 was to be put in place from October 2025, but this has been postponed. Dilnott has expressed his disappointment at the ditching of the social care plan, calling it a tragedy.
The cap has only ever been mooted for the cost of actual care, and was not a total cap. For those living in care settings, the fees for ‘hotel’ costs of accommodation and other services would still have been payable.
With no cap in place and none likely for the foreseeable future, anyone moving into care will have to consider that they may have to sell their home to pay for care.
Even before the budget announcement, English councils had been calling for postponement of the introduction of the cap, saying that funding and staff shortages would make it impossible to deliver.
Find out more about paying for care
- The UK Which? consumer service has a good summary article of current (August 2024) ways to fund care when it’s needed
- Asking for a care needs assessment from the local authority
- Local authorities and paying for care
Photo by Jeffrey Zhang on Unsplash
