The Care Act 2014 (from now on referred to simply as
the Act) is an Act of Parliament. An Act of Parliament – or a statute as it is
often called - is law made by Parliament. Parliament consists of one elected
body - the House of Commons – and two unelected bodies, the House of Lords and
the Monarch. A statute begins its life as a Bill. To become law it must be
passed by all three of the bodies that make up Parliament. In the Houses of
commons and the Lords this is achieved by the members voting in favour of the
Bill. The Monarch – ie the Queen – grants her assent, which, it might be
suggested, is a type of vote. The final stage in a Bill’s progression through
Parliament is reached when it is granted Royal Assent, at which point a Bill
becomes an Act.
However, just because a Bill has become an Act does
not mean that its provisions have come into force; indeed, far from it. Today,
it is fairly typical for a statute to be granted Royal Assent and only over a
period of time – often a period of years - for its provisions to come into
force. There are some Acts of Parliament various parts of which have never come
into force.
The
different parts of a statute are generally brought into force by a cabinet
minister. Section 127 of the Care Act 2014 says “The provisions of Parts 1 to 4
come into force on such day as the Secretary of State may by order appoint.”
Section 127 is known as a commencement section. Parts 1 to 4 are the main parts
of the Act. Therefore, even though we now have a Care Act that is law in
England and Wales, all the important reforms that it contains await
implementation by the Secretary of State over time.
The Care Act
2014
The
Act is long – 129 sections contained in 167 pages - and wide ranging. Norman
Lamb, the care minister has described the Act as “[representing] the most
significant reform of care and support in more than 60 years”. Speaking more generally about care and the
new Act, Norman Lamb has commented that:
"Care
and support is something that nearly everyone in this country will experience
at some point in their lives….Even if you don’t need care yourself, you will
probably know a family member or friend who does, or you may care for someone.
And many more of us will need care in the future, so it is important for us to
have a modern system that can keep up with the demands of a growing ageing
population….Until now it’s been almost impossible for people who need care,
carers, and even those who manage the care system, to understand how the
previous law affecting them worked.”
Amongst other things, the Act deals with personal budgets, duties on local authorities, minimum eligibility thresholds and, of course, caps on the amount that you as an individual will have to pay for your care.
The Cap on Your
Individual Care Costs
Under
the current system, to qualify for your care costs to be paid by social
services you need to have less than £23 250 in savings (known as your capital)
and be on a low income. For more information on this, go to this page.
The
new Act provides the legislative framework to place a cap on the total amount
that you will have to pay in your lifetime.
There will be a needs assessment – currently known as a community care
assessment. The care and support that you are assessed as requiring will be care
and support for what will be known as your “eligible needs”. The cap on your
care costs is the maximum amount that you will have to pay in your lifetime to
meet your eligible needs.
It
is important to note two points. First, at this moment in time the relevant
part of the Act dealing with the cap has not been brought into force. The intention
expressed by the government is that the cap will operate from April 2016.
However, there will be a general election in 2015 and we may have a different
government. As explained above, it is for the Secretary of State (who is Jeremy
Hunt at the moment) to bring into force the relevant part of the Act.
The
second thing to note is that there are no figures contained in the Act. Once
again, the government has expressed an intention, this time to the effect that
the cap should be set at £72 000. Just as with the implementation of the
relevant part of the Act dealing with the cap itself, the actual figure at
which the cap is set will be set and implemented by the Secretary of State.
The
cap will not cover what are called “living costs”. This is highly relevant if
you were looking to move into residential accommodation. The cap will not cover
such costs as utility bills and food. The aim behind this is to try not to
disadvantage those receiving domiciliary care. If you have home care; you still
have to pay for things like heating and food. Therefore, excluding living costs
from the cap attempts to gain some consistency between those in residential
care and those receiving home care.
The
cap will only cover the cost of meeting your eligible needs. You may want
something extra. In such a case you will be expected to pay for that yourself.
For example, if your eligible needs require a home care visit of 30 minutes
each morning, only the cost of those visits are covered by the cap. If you wish
to have a 45 minute call each day, you will have to pay for the extra 15
minutes.
There
will no doubt be a good deal of media attention focused on the Care Act in the
coming months. At Caremark Thanet, we will do our best to keep our customers up
to date with important changes.
If
you would like a free, no obligation chat about anything in this article or
more generally about domiciliary care please call us now on 01843 235910, or
email us at thanet@carmark.co.uk.
Garry Costain is
the Managing Director of Caremark Thanet, a domiciliary care provider with
offices in Margate, Kent. Caremark Thanet provides home care services
throughout the Isle of Thanet. Garry can be contacted on 01843 235910 or email
garry.costain@caremark.co.uk. You can also visit Caremark Thanet's website at www.caremark.co.uk/thanet.
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