The Commission on Funding of Care and Support presented its findings to the UK Government in its report Fairer Care Funding, published on 4th July 2011. The independent commission, set up last July, was asked to recommend a fair and sustainable funding system for adult social care in England.

Among the recommendations in the report are:

• Individuals’ lifetime contributions towards their social care costs – which are currently potentially unlimited – should be capped. After the cap is reached, individuals would be eligible for full state support. This cap should be between £25,000 and £50,000. We consider that £35,000 is the most appropriate and fair figure;
• The means-tested threshold, above which people are liable for their full care costs, should be increased from £23,250 to £100,000;
• National eligibility criteria and portable assessments should be introduced to ensure greater consistency; and
• All those who enter adulthood with a care and support need should be eligible for free state support immediately rather than being subjected to a means test.
• The Commission estimates that its proposals – based on a cap of £35,000 – would cost the State around £1.7billion.

The recommendations are given in full in the Commission’s report Fairer Care Funding. The report is also available in an easy read version and pamphlet which gives a summary of the main recommendations.
To accompany the report there are two additional published volumes – Volume II Evidence and Analysis, and Volume III Supporting Documents.

Fairer Care Funding

All of these documents are available below along with a presentation illustrating the recommendations that the Commission gave:
Fairer Care Funding – Report (PDF: 2,343KB)
Fairer Care Funding – Easy Read (PDF: 4,556KB)
Fairer Care Funding Pamphlet (PDF: 2,666KB)
Volume II Evidence and Analysis (PDF: 3,254KB)
Volume III Supporting Documents (PDF: 3,821KB
Presentation of Report Recommendations (PDF: 160KB)