Judge a Government on its priorities. And then its priorities within priorities. Amidst the clamour for rapid and credible deficit reduction, the dawning reality that green shoots won’t sprout unaided, Iain Duncan Smith’s welfare reform and Michael Gove’s education revolution, social care did make the hastily compiled Coalition to-do list. But a Government’s Parliamentary programme is a game of two halves, and within weeks of Andrew Dilnot’s radical report in 2011, it became clear that any such reform would be a second half priority.
Today, after months of cross-party Whitehall wrangling and internal Coalition debate, the Health Secretary proudly unveils the Government’s offer. A new cap on the total social care costs an individual will have to pay over a lifetime – £75,000 – and a much higher means test threshold, up from the tediously low £23,500 to a rumoured £123,000.
Our airwaves and inboxes are already overrun by care industry specialists, pouring over the details and giving their feedback.
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