Last night, Nadine Dorries was in charge of a Tory uprising over Treasury proposals to postpone the social care price ceiling.
The former culture minister warned that “Treasury orthodoxy” might kill out Boris Johnson’s centerpiece initiative to control the cost of care in later life.
Downing Street’s announcement that its planned implementation could be postponed in order to save money prompted the warning.
As part of negotiations with the incoming Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to attempt to close a £40 billion deficit in the Government’s accounts, No. 10 said that delay was “on the table.”
The care cap aims to keep everyone’s out-of-pocket costs for care in later life at £86,000. The Treasury would save £1 billion by delaying it for a year, and savings of up to $3 billion might be realized with a longer delay.
The Government, however, was cautioned by Mrs. Dorries, could not afford to break yet another platform promise. She said that despite “Treasury pushback” from the previous chancellor Rishi Sunak, whose leadership candidacy was supported by Mr Hunt, Mr Johnson had pushed the change through.
She continued: “Treasury officials oppose social care reform, and this action is intended to put it off indefinitely. This is a complete reversal of Treasury orthodoxy that we are seeing.
The policy, which was intended to put an end to the problem of people having to sell their houses to pay for care in later life, was also criticized by former Tory minister James Cartlidge.
We should all be very worried about the possibility that the limit may now be postponed or possibly never go into effect, he added.
If Mr. Cartlidge had known the care cap was in danger, he said he would have been “sorely tempted” to vote against last week’s repeal of the Health and Social Care Levy.
The whole purpose of the tax, according to him, was to address the issue of social care while simultaneously providing financial support for the NHS in these trying times.
“It is crucial that the cash given to move towards paying a fair price for care is still made available so that councils can start to raise the fees paid to providers to more sustainable levels,” said David Fothergill of the Local Government Association.