not benefits, but may be of interest ...

'The government has signalled that it may scrap means-testing for long term care of elderly and disabled people in England.

Ministers are thought to prefer a system coupling universal entitlement with a top-up co-payment.

Proposals for a Green Paper to look at the issue were contained in the Comprehensive Spending Review.

Sounds promising, and a long overdue step...however, the reality at present is that the government is playing the green paper down.

Furthermore, the system - if it changes at all - may well have huge implications (as ever) beyond the banner headline....the current "unwritten" policy for many Authorities is to routinely use residential/nursing care as an option to meet needs rather than the (often) more expensive (to the tax payer) option of domiciliary care...and whilst many people have to pay for their own residential/nursing care, this state of affairs can only be underpinned, as Authorities see this as a way of reducing their own care budgets and directly passing the cost to the service user.

If the option of domiciliary care was more financially attractive to Authorities, then of course they would "choose" ("recommend") it more often...but there is insufficient will to increase the Social Services budgets to reflect this idea now, never mind in such a future where demand would be potentially greater.

How such funding for care would be arranged is also a huge issue, as - for example - the right to certain benefits is dependent on how a person is funded.

I may be cynical (in fact i think I am, unfortunately) ...but I will await action rather than words.