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<p>The Government will work to address the challenges of social care for our ageing
society to reach a longer-term sustainable settlement for social care. This is why
the Government has committed to publishing a Green Paper later this year setting out
its proposals for reform.</p><p>The Green Paper will bring forward ideas for including
an element of risk pooling in the system, which will help to protect people from the
unpredictability of care costs. An updated impact assessment and any relevant costings
will be provided as part of the Green Paper publication.</p><p>Estimates of the cost
of introducing a cap on social care costs, along the lines proposed by the 2011 Commission
on Funding Care and Support, can be found in an Impact Assessment (IA) previously
published by the Department in February 2015. A copy of the <em>Social Care Funding
Reform Impact Assessment IA No: 9531</em> is attached.</p><p>It is important to note
that the IA does not represent current Government plans, which will be set out following
the social care Green Paper consultation, but is the last available published data
on the cap.</p><p>The IA shows that the cost of a £72,000 cap, together with the means
test reforms planned at the time, would be £1.79 billion in 2025/26 (in 2016/17 prices
and assuming implementation in April 2016).</p>
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