The Department of Health has insisted it will stand by its pledge to cap the costs of care from 2020.

Whitehall is understood to be working with the insurance industry on developing financial products to help people plan and pay for care, but a survey of social care leaders found 92% were either not very confident or not at all confident that the 2020 target would be met.

Andrew Kaye, head of policy at older people's charity Independent Age, which collaborated on the survey with The MJ, said: ‘This date for introducing a proposed cap has already been put back and it now seems questionable whether it will ever materialise.

‘Ministers must address this uncertainty by detailing what plans they have for introducing a cap on care costs by 2020.'