Last Friday (3rd November 2017) saw the launch of the report ‘Will the cap fit’ by Independent Age and the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, some six years after Sir Andrew Dilnot first suggested the need to cap care costs.
Whilst the proposal in this report of a £100,000 cap that covers all care costs (including daily living costs and ‘excess’ top-up fees) has much merit, not least because of the number of those who would potentially be impacted, I cannot help but feel that in reality public funding for social care is only likely to be available for those with the lowest means and highest care needs. This said, I suspect any cap might encourage insurers to innovate/participate in a way that they will not at the moment, given the inherent pricing challenge around predicting how many individuals are likely to need LTC, how long for and how much it will actually cost in 5/10/15 years time.
You can read the report here: