Theresa May reveals Tory manifesto will target mammoth OAP social care bill to solve services crisis long term
Ministers are plotting a long term solution after March's Budget hinted at insurance to pay for care
THERESA May revealed her manifesto is set to contain a centrepiece gem to fix Britain’s social care timebomb.
Speaking in Wales the PM declared she would not “duck” tackling the country’s crippling social care bill like her predecessors did.
She said her ministers were plotting a long term solution to the growing crisis in services for the elderly and disabled.
Chancellor Philip Hammond has already opened the door to a compulsory insurance system to help Brits to pay for their care in old age in March’s Budget.
Challenged on if she’d kick the crisis into the long grass like previous PMs David Cameron or Tony Blair, she pledged: “We need to stop ducking the issue”.
The PM - who joked The Sun would have to wait and see what her policy on social care was in the yet-to-be-unveiled manifesto – hinted plans were well underway.
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She went on: “We are and have been already working on a long term solution and that’s what we need in this country.
“We need to ensure we’ve got that long term solution for a sustainable future for social care.”
The Tories made a manifesto pledge in 2015 to bring in a cap on social care costs.
But the promise was dropped by David Cameron only weeks after the election and put back until 2020.
After admitting the system was “clearly under pressure” Philip Hammond announced a review of the long-term funding of the system earlier this year.
He has ruled out a so-called “death tax” – when people’s estates are taxed after their death.
But the system is now caring for more than 1m people.
Ministers are now considering a Japanese or German-style model where people pay into into an elderly care insurance system dependant on their income and where they live.
Last year Mrs May gave councils the green light to hike council tax by an extra 3 per cent as a short term fix.
Cabinet Office officials – led by trusted minister Ben Gummer – have been working on a social care green paper for several months.
Mrs May added: “I recognise the pressures on social care, and I’ve seen it as needing a short term, a medium term and a long term response.”
During her speech in Bridgend she also blasted Labour’s record on the NHS in Wales.
The Labour-controlled Welsh Assembly has slashed the NHS budget by 8 per cent.
And one in seven people in Wales are currently on a waiting list.
She added: “If you look at the NHS it’s an area where there’s a very clear choice for people between the Conservative Party and the Labour party.
“We’ve actually, if you look at the last financial year, we the Conservative government put more extra money in to the NHS than Labour at the general election saying they would put in to the NHS.
“But I can’t stand here in Wales and about Labour and the NHS without saying – if you want to see what Labour would do to the NHS, just look at the problems here in Wales.”
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