Andrew Dilnot has signalled his intentions for the next stage in his career with the publication of a national care report this week.
The report, published by the Commission on Funding of Care and Support, of which Dilnot is Chair, has claimed that social care costs should be capped to a maximum of £35,000 in order to ensure that people do not risk losing all their assets later in life. After this amount has been reached, the individual would be eligible for full state support.
The Principal of St Hugh’s plans to step down in September 2012 to take up a post as Warden of Nuffield, a social science graduate college.
However, in an email sent out to St Hugh’s students, Dilnot said that this position ‘will allow me to spend much more time doing economics again’.
Dilnot has described the current system of social care as ‘confusing, unfair and unsustainable’ and expressed hope that some changes will be seen in next spring’s white paper.
“Under our proposed system everybody who gets free support from the state now will continue to do so and everybody else would be better off.
‘Putting a limit on the maximum lifetime costs people may face will allow them to plan ahead for how they wish to meet these costs. By protecting a larger amount of people’s assets they need no longer fear losing everything.”
The report acknowledges that these changes would cost the government between £1.3 billion and £2.2 billion. It suggests that those who will benefit directly from these reforms, those people over state pension age, should experience ‘‘at least a part of the burden’’.
