Middle-class families will be given help to find suitable care homes for their loved ones and more power to challenge poor standards in a shake-up of long-term care for the elderly.

Phil Hope, the minister drafting a forthcoming Green Paper, told The Times that he wants to do away with the split between elderly people who qualify for help from local authorities to find and finance care and better off “self-funders”, who pay for care themselves but have no help finding it and cannot challenge the home when things go wrong. Anyone with savings or a property worth £22,500 or more is forced to navigate the complex system of residential care. They comprise 40 per cent of the 440,000 care home residents in Britain.

People should not be “turned away” from the system because they have too much money, according to Mr Hope, the Minister for Social Care.

The Green Paper, due in the spring, will contain a “universal offer” so all will be entitled to a full assessment of their needs, information and advice on homes, how much they should pay and, crucially, support to complain. In a second move, the Law Commission has been charged with drawing up proposals to put minimum standards for care homes on to a proper legal footing but in the form of guidance only - making it easier to launch a formal complaint if standards are not met.

Taken together, Mr Hope said that standards of care in homes will be driven up. He called the quality of care offered at present “unsustainable”.

“Ultimately I don't think someone should be turned away on the basis of how much money they have got. I believe nobody should be saying ‘no' to you and you should at least get an assessment, an idea of your needs and entitlements,” he said.

Asked about the power of self-funders to appeal if things go wrong in homes, he said: “Maybe at the end of this process there will not be self-funders, as we know them today. We aim to arrive at a model which has the core offer of a universal service, but offers more help for those who need it most. That is the challenge.”

He was unable, however, to promise that the “universal offer” would extend to financial help. Experts in long-term care say that, given the deteriorating economic climate, it was unlikely that better-off families would be given a subsidy for fees, which can cost on average £35,100 a year if nursing is required.

A series of alternatives to help people to pay for care will be presented in the Green Paper, Mr Hope said, which should mean fewer people are forced to sell their homes. Mr Hope said the paper would include as many models as possible.

Whitehall sources say that a social insurance scheme and deferred payments with fees claimed back upon death would be included.

“There will be lots of options, some of which are off the wall. One where everybody has to take out their own insurance and look after themselves may be a model, although we will make clear there are some that are worth debating in more depth than others,” Mr Hope said.

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