§ Mr. DenhamTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish the assumptions used to calculate the cost of the increased lower and upper capital limits for long-term care announced in the "Financial Statement and Budget Report"; how many additional people he expects to qualify next year under the new capital limits; how many would have qualified next year under the existing526W capital limits; and how many qualified in the current financial year. [8653]
§ Mr. Waldegrave[holding answer 15 January 1996]: A wide range of data and assumptions underpinned determination of the provision for long-term care capital limit increases set out in the "Financial Statement and Budget Report". Of the order of 50,000 people currently in residential or nursing home care can expect to benefit from the increases. At the end of the last financial year, around 370,000 people received public support for residential or nursing home care.