Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support homeowners wanting to access permanent social care.

We are committed to bringing forward a proposal for social care this year to ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect and to find long term solutions for one of the biggest challenges we face as a society.

At present, the equity in an individual’s home is only taken into consideration as part of means testing their contribution towards their social care costs if they were the only adult living in it and they are entering residential care. Currently, Deferred Payment Agreements are available to allow eligible individuals to access the equity in their home to pay for their residential care, without having to sell it.