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Millions of people are left with no idea how much they will have to spend on social care after senior Tories refused to reveal where they would set a cap.

Home secretary Amber Rudd admitted the Tories did not know ‘where the cap will be’ as she tried to defend the party’s botched u-turn on the dementia tax last week.

Theresa May’s manifesto planned to scrap the cap which limited the amount people would have to pay for their own social care sparking widespread anger as families could lose their homes and savings.

It took the Prime Minister just four days after announcing the controversial policy to backtrack after a string of negative headlines and the polls started to dip.

Last Monday she said there would be an “absolute limit” on the money people would have to pay for their care - a measure that did not appear in her manifesto.

But instead of admitting to the embarrassing u-turn the PM insisted “nothing has changed”.

(Image: PA)

It is thought to be the first time a political party has been forced to rewrite its own manifesto before an election has even taken place.

The original policy would mean people would have to spend all their assets on social care until they had just £100,000.

Sir Andrew Dilnot led a Government inquiry into social care in 2011, which recommended a cap be set at £35,000.

More recently the Tories had put a cap of £72,000 into an Act of Parliament that was due to come into force in 2020.

But now, although senior Tories agree there will be a cap, they are refusing to tell voters where this will fall, before they go to the polls on June 8.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd admitted the party was “not sure” what the cap would be.

“The Prime Minister has said yes, there will be a cap,” she said. “But we are not sure where the cap will be.

“What we are saying is we will have a green paper to make sure that we set it at the right level and we consider all the other alternatives,” she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show.

(Image: ITV)

After Mrs May revealed the controversial policy to drop the cap she suffered days of bad headlines.

Critics had branded her decision a “ Dementia Tax ”, as it would leave elderly people who develop dementia or similar long-term illnesses facing unlimited costs.

Opinion polls carried out after the manifestos were published showed Labour starting to eat into the Tory lead.

Defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon accused Labour of ‘scaremongering’ as he told ITV’s Robert Peston that no one would lose their home or all their savings.

But he gave no further details about the amount

He said: “We’ve put into the policy now some additional reassurance because of the scaremongering of Labour after the manifesto was published.

“Further reassurance that people will not lose their home, they will not lose all of their savings but yes some people will be asked to make a contribution to raising the quality of social care.”

Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb said: “The refusal of the Conservatives to tell us what the cap on social care costs will be shows they are holding the public in contempt.

“Theresa May must stop flip-flopping and do what her party had committed to, implement a £72,000 cap on care.

“Conservative plans for a dementia tax are cruel and not properly thought through. It shows Theresa May is taking people for granted.”