Chancellor announces English social care reforms dropped

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced on 29 July 2024 that planned reforms to social care funding in England would be dropped, according to Which?¹. The reforms, first set out in September 2021, had been due to take effect in October 2023, were delayed to October 2025 in October 2022, and have now been cancelled altogether¹.

The centrepiece was a lifetime cap of £86,000 on what any individual would spend on personal care, which covers support with eating or dressing as well as medical assistance; living costs such as food, accommodation and energy bills would still have fallen to the individual¹. The reforms also covered the capital limits used to assess council funding. The upper capital limit, the maximum in savings and property value at which a person can still receive council support, was to rise in England from £23,250 to £100,000, and the lower capital limit, below which the council pays for care, from £14,250 to £20,000¹. Neither change will now happen, and the limits remain as they are¹.

The limits differ across the UK, with England and Northern Ireland having the lowest¹:

Between the two limits, a person pays a tariff income of £1 a week for every £250 held in savings¹. In Scotland, free personal care is available regardless of financial situation, though this does not cover living costs such as food or accommodation¹.

On property, if care is received at home the home is not counted in the funding assessment¹. On moving into a care home, the home's value is not counted if a carer or another close relative such as a spouse or a child over 60 still lives there; otherwise there are 12 weeks after the start of a long-term stay before the council considers the home's value¹. A deferred payment agreement allows the council to pay care costs, repaid with interest when the home is eventually sold¹.

Why it matters for households

The cancellation means the funding rules that apply to people in England now are the ones that will continue to apply, with no lifetime ceiling on personal care spending and no change to the £23,250 and £14,250 thresholds¹. Anyone whose savings and property fall between those two figures continues to pay tariff income of £1 a week for every £250 in savings¹. The cap would have most benefited people with savings far beyond the threshold for council funding, who were unlikely to reach the threshold for support in their lifetime¹. Social care is devolved, so the reforms applied to England only, and the capital limits in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are unchanged¹.

Other sources of support remain as reported: NHS Continuing Healthcare, based on medical need rather than finances, and NHS Funded Nursing Care at flat rates of £235.88 or £324.50 per week, covering nursing costs but not accommodation¹. Attendance allowance, for those over state pension age with a physical or mental disability who need someone to care for them, pays £72.65 or £108.55 a week depending on need¹. Which? notes that councils can refuse funding where assets have been deliberately given away to qualify, under deliberate deprivation of assets rules¹.

What happens next

No further timetable for social care funding reform in England has been reported. The reforms were cancelled in an effort to cover shortfalls in government revenue¹.