3. Will the First Minister make a statement on the progress of the Welsh Government commitment to raise the capital limit for those entering residential care? OAQ(5)0598(FM)

Yes. We’re delivering on this top-six ‘Taking Wales Forward’ commitment. A phased implementation is under way, and the first increase to £30,000 was introduced in April. We have provided local authorities with £4.5 million in 2017-18 to deliver that increase.

I thank the First Minister for that response and I do commend the Welsh Government on taking very early steps to deliver on this pledge to raise the capital limit to more than double over the life of this Assembly term, to £50,000. We know very often that the only asset many of our constituents have is that home, so more than doubling it has a disproportionately great benefit on what they can pass on to their relatives at some point.

So, along with this, there is also to be a full disregard of the war disablement pension being introduced in Wales, which means that Welsh veterans no longer have to use any part of this to pay for the care they need. This is part of us honouring our covenant with those who put their lives on the line for their country. So, could I ask the First Minister if he has any idea, now, what sort of numbers we could be talking about in those who may benefit from this excellent policy?

Well, the initial increase to £30,000 will benefit around 250 people. The increase to £50,000 will benefit up to 1,000. This is out of a total of 4,000 care home residents who pay the full cost of their residential care, so a substantial percentage.

First Minister, we support the improvement in this policy, of course, particularly the part relating to the veterans’ disregard, but is this savings cap really the best that you can do for people who’ve tried very, very hard, very often at personal cost of personal sacrifices in spending, in order that they save more? Now, Jeremy Corbyn has recently said that he is not wealthy, despite earning more than £138,000 each year, and house prices in Wales are averaging £175,000 a year. So, don’t you agree that the £100,000 pledge, the cap pledged by Welsh Conservatives, probably reflects more realistically the hard work that people have put in to earning this money during the course of their lives?

Well, the pledge that the Welsh Conservatives had was not costed properly and there is a cost to how much such a policy would cost. We know that 25 per cent, roughly, of care home residents in Wales will benefit from this policy, and it’s another example of a Welsh Government keeping its promises, as we have done for the past six years.