Draft national minimum eligibility threshold for adult care and support: a discussion document

The White Paper 'Caring for our future: reforming care and support' sets out plans to develop and test potential new assessment and eligibility models. From April 2015, subject to the passage of the Care Bill, a new national minimum threshold for eligibility will be specified, which will set a guarantee of the minimum needs which local authorities must meet in every area. This will be introduced through a provision in clause 13 of the Bill, which requires Secretary of State to make regulations to set out the “eligibility criteria” for all local authorities. The Draft Care and Support (Eligibility Criteria) Regulations set out this minimum threshold on what needs are eligible for care and support in local authorities across England, for people needing care and carers respectively. These are the needs which must be met, provided the person needing care is ordinarily resident in the local authority area, and the person needing care or the carer as appropriate wants the local authority to meet them.