Government denies £100m disability cut
Updated on 30 March 2010
Exclusive: Gordon Brown's promise of free residential care relies is called into question by the opposition after the small print of today's white paper revealed a GBP 100m annual cut to disability benefits. But the government denies taking an axe to disability benefits to fund its social care plans.
The social care proposals revealed today by health secretary Andy Burnham will not be in place before 2015 - and investigations by Channel 4 News show that £100m is to be cut from attendance allowance for the disabled as part of the reform.
Today's white paper said a cross-party National Care Commission would look at options for how people would pay for their long term care in old age.
Health secretary Andy Burnham said he still favoured a compulsory levy of some kind. He refused to rule out the so-called "death tax" of 10 per cent, which could be levied on all estates.
However, any compulsory charge would be not be introduced until after 2015, while the issue is analysed by the commission.
On page 132 of the white paper is an admission by the health department that spending on disability benefits will be cut in order to help pay for the free care pledge.
For more, go to FactCheck
- Social care for all – but do the sums add up?
Channel 4 News FactCheck has learnt that this page was missing from a draft being circulated just yesterday.
In its place is a note saying "wording to be agreed by the treasury, No.10 and special advisers later today".
The late addition appears to undermine a guarantee to disabilities campaigners that benefits would not be cut.
The Department of Health says £100m can be cut from the so-called attendance allowance, because people receiving free residential care would no longer need that benefit.
But the promise of free care does not cover accommodation charges such as food and utilities. typically, this amounts to half the total costs in a care home, so charities are concerned that the disabled will lose out.
In Scotland, if you have savings or property worth more than £22,500, you already pay for the cost of accommodation or food, but you may be entitled to free personal and nursing care.
There are further sensitivities about funding ahead. As the government prepares to set up a national care service, it wants to divert £1.8bn from the NHS.
And the spectre of the death tax to help pay for care in the long term is still on the table. The government said it would not impose a tax on people's estates for the duration of the next parliament.
But a death tax will be an option considered by a commission looking at how to fund the national care service.
Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley MP told Channel 4 News Labour's health plans seemed to have fallen apart in disarray.
"Yesterday the chancellor of the exchequer said that he rejected a death tax," he said. "Today they've actually put forward proposals that say that they're planning to proceed with a death tax. They just don't want the public to realise it.
"They don't want to discuss how they're going to pay for social care in the future. They just want to make promises about it."
And Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat shadow health secretary, said: "Labour promised to protect disability benefits from any future cuts, but it looks like they're going to have to raid budgets to pay for their free care plans.
"The flimsiness of the plans put forward today beggars belief, and all we learned is that there is an enormous funding black hole in the government's plans to reform social care.
"By failing to spell out how these policies will be paid for in the future, it's hardly surprising that people will worry there are significant cuts in other services to come."
Gordon Brown says the national care service will be founded on labour's enduring belief in fairness and responsibility.
With just week sot go until a general election, politicians like to talk about winners. But the small print makes clear that looknig after an ageing population will inevitably create losers, too.
Government to look at 'all the options'
Care services minister Phil Hope, interviewed by Jon Snow, pledged the creation of a national care service "to provide care for people free, when they need it" - and that includes adults with disabilities as well as older people.
He denied that the government planned to change any of the rules affecting attendance allowance.
"When someone goes into state-funded residential care," he explained, "they don't get AA, attendance allowance, or DLA.
"And similarly, the people who will be qualifying for free care in a residential setting after two years, in stage two of our reform, the same rules will apply."
Mr Hope said that the £100m estimate was the result of an impact assessment.
He said the national care service would create "new partnerships" between the NHS and social care providers, with primary care trusts and local authorities working together to generate savings.
A bill would make mandatory "joint commissioning of intermediate care services".
And discussing the introduction of a "death tax" to help fund Labour's care proposals, Mr Hope said the government would look at all the payment options for people to pay - "which could include paying after someone has died."
"The care commission will be asked to look at all the options that people might have to be able to make that contribution."
