§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 20 January 2004,Official Report, column 1110W, on long-term care, whether the methodology used to arrive at this figure is the same as that used to cost the Government's own policies; and if he will place in the library a copy of the terms of reference given to the civil servants costing the policy. [155461]
§ Dr. LadymanThe estimate of £1.5 billion is an updated estimate of the cost of free personal care for England. The methodology used to produce this updated estimate was identical to that used by the Royal Commission, except for two differences. The first difference is that the Royal Commission did not include an explicit allowance for costs of publicly funded care home residents. These costs are now estimated at £100 million and are included in the updated estimate. The second difference is that the updated estimate takes into account changes to the funding arrangements made by the Government since the Royal Commission produced its estimate. Had no account been taken, the updated estimate would have been higher. The main change is the implementation of free nursing care. Ministers gave no instructions or terms of references to civil servants concerning how the calculation of the updated estimate was to be made.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 30 January 2004,Official Report, column 559W, on long-term care, which specific benefits are referred to in point seven of the explanatory note; how the savings of under £200 million were calculated; and whether any of the 58,000 privately funded residents of residential care homes mentioned in the explanatory note were in homes with dual registration, and therefore entitled to free nursing care. [155966]
§ Dr. LadymanThe social security benefits referred to in point seven of the note are attendance allowance and disability living allowance care component. These benefits cease to be paid after four weeks of local authority support. Disability living allowance mobility component does not cease to be paid and is not included.
Estimates of the proportions of older privately funded admissions to care homes receiving these benefits were derived from tables 4.13 and 4.14 of the Personal Social Services Research Unit report, Self-Funded Admissions to Care Homes (available at www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rrep159.asp). These proportions 487W were applied to the estimate numbers of privately funded care home residents to produce an estimate of the numbers of privately funded residents receiving these benefits. The estimated numbers were multiplied by the benefit rates to produce an estimated annual saving of under £200 million.
The approach assumed estimates of 42,000 privately funded residents in nursing beds in nursing homes or dual-registered homes and 58,000 privately funded residents in residential beds in residential care homes or dual-registered homes. Reference to dual-registered beds was omitted from the note for simplicity. This means that none of the estimated 58,000 were assumed to be entitled to free nursing care. This assumption does not, however, affect the estimated saving on disability benefits since receipt of free nursing care does not trigger cessation of disability benefits.