Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their latest estimate of the impact in England of the exemption of a main home from the calculation of assets on the charges that would be payable under the means test for domiciliary care.

Under the Care Act (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014 and the Care and Support Statutory Guidance, local authorities may not charge a recipient of domiciliary care against the value of their main or only home.

The Department estimates that around 120,000 people benefit from this exemption at any given time, and that the beneficiaries collectively save approximately £1.3 billion annually.