2019 will be the year another Welsh Labour election commitment is delivered to the people of Pembrokeshire says locally based Assembly Member, Eluned Morgan.

The amount of money people in Wales can keep when in residential care is set to increase from April this year, fulfilling a pledge made at the last Assembly elections in 2016 to increase the capital limit, the amount people can keep whilst in residential care, from £24,000 to £50,000. This final increase in the limit means that the pledge will be met in full this April.

Eluned Morgan AM said: “Welsh Labour is again delivering on one of our promises to the people of Pembrokeshire. As our population grows older, many people are worried about the costs of care and the thought of having to use their life savings or selling their homes to pay for the care they need.

“In acting on those concerns, we promised to more than double the capital people can keep when in residential care – freeing up more of people’s money for them to use as they wish.”

“From April 2017 the limit was raised to £30,000, supported by an additional £4.5 million per annum being added to the Revenue Support Grant (RSG) to enable local authorities’ implementation of this.

“From this April 2018, the limit was increased further to £40,000 with an additional £7 million per annum being added to the RSG to make funding of £11.5 million per annum in total.”

Eluned continued: “The success of this policy can be seen through the direct impact it is having on care home residents in Wales. Over the eighteen months since we introduced the first increase, around 1,500 care home residents benefited which is a significant achievement in a relatively short timeframe.”