New analysis shows a ‘stealth’ change to social care plans will mean the average homeowner in Chesterfield will have to pay more towards their care.

New analysis by the Labour Party using local house price data shows stealth changes to social care proposals are set to hammer homeowners outside of London and the South East.

Reforms to social care plans – shamefully snuck out during Labour’s debate on Tory corruption – will see people with high care needs and assets under £186k paying more for their care.

With the average house price standing at £170,000, many homeowners in Chesterfield will be hit with higher costs, whilst those with homes worth over £186k will be unaffected.

Toby Perkins, MP for Chesterfield, said, “It is shameful that hard working homeowners in Chesterfield are being hit with higher care costs while the wealthiest remain untouched.

The new care cap is a con that only protects the homes of the wealthiest people in the country. The Tories promised before the last election that nobody would be required to sell their house to pay for their care. Elderly people and their families in Chesterfield deserve better and are being failed yet again by this Tory Government.”

Under the proposed care cap, homeowners in Chesterfield with a property worth the average £170,000 would have to contribute more than 50% of the value of their property to their care costs, whilst someone living in a property worth £500,000 would contribute less than 20% of the value of their property.

Liz Kendall, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Social Care described the cap as “a punishing tax hike on ordinary working people that does nothing to ensure more people get the care they need or improve services”.

Toby added, “This adds a further blow to communities in the Midlands and the North following the scrapping of the Eastern Leg of HS2, which would have created hundreds of local jobs and added millions to the local economy. The Government’s ‘Levelling Up’ agenda is a series of cons and false promises.”

Toby joined his Labour colleagues on Tuesday in voting against the Health and social care bill. In the votes on amendments that followed Monday’s debate on amendments to the bill, he was paired with a Conservative MP and so no vote was recorded, this had no impact on the outcome because it meant that both sides were 1 vote down.

Toby explained: “Pairing enables MPs to be absent on occasions when they have other engagements. One MP from both sides is absent to allow MPs to attend other events without it impacting on the final vote, but I can confirm that I oppose the care con and voted against the whole bill on that basis.”