Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the findings published by Age UK on 10 June 2020 that some care home residents are being required to pay extra fees to cover costs associated with the covid-19 outbreak, what assessment he has made of the (a) implications of those findings for his policies on adult social care and (b) likelihood that the inability of care home residents to meet those extra costs could precipitate care home closures.

Where individuals are not eligible for financial support from their local authority, they make their own arrangements for care services and pay the fees. This is known as being a ‘self-funder’. The fees are set out in a contract between the individual and the care provider. The Government has no say in these private arrangements.

A local authority must regularly reassess a person’s ability to meet the cost of any charges to take account of any changes to their income and assets.

We recognise the pressures that COVID-19 is placing on the social care system. We have already provided £3.2 billion to local authorities and have made a £600 million Infection Control Fund available to care homes to allow them to take additional steps to reduce the spread.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are required to shape their whole local markets to ensure that they are sustainable, diverse and offer high quality care and support for people in their local area. The Care Act places a duty on local authorities to ensure that people continue to receive the services they need if their adult social care provider is no longer able to carry on delivering services.