HELPING crisis-hit families who need to sell their homes to fund elderly care must be a made an urgent Government priority.

That’s the call from Worcester MP Robin Walker , who said pushing back plans to shake up the care system until 2015 is not good enough.

The Government has already pledged to look into the issue but not until after the next Comprehensive Spending Review, which is likely to be three years away.

Mr Walker has written to David Cameron to urge him to make it a political priority well before the next general election.

He said: “We know this is a real problem and that the system of elderly care, in its present form, is not working.

“I think it’s tragic for any family which has to sell their home to pay for care. We need something to be put in place to protect people.

“The Government has already said it will look into this, but has pushed it back until after the next spending review, and to me that just isn’t good enough.

“We need to make it a political priority, and do it well before 2015. People should not have to sell up and lose everything to pay for care.”

The annual cost of a care home is £20,000, with families across the country forced to sell their homes to meet the bills. At the moment, everyone with savings of more than £23,350 pays for the support they need for washing, dressing and eating at home.

But if an individual needs a care home place, that threshold includes the value of their property.

Shortly after the coalition was formed, ministers asked economist Andrew Dilnot to look at what changes should be made.

His review recommended a cap on what people should have to pay, with £35,000 seen as the ideal figure, before taxpayers pick up the rest of the bill.

Mr Dilnot also suggested the means-tested threshold should rise four-fold to £100,000 for those needing residential care.

But that measure alone would cost £2 billion, and the Government has now pushed the matter onto the backburner.

A Department for Health spokesman said: “Funding reform needs to be considered alongside other priorities and the right place to do this is at the next spending review.”

The Government has said it backs the principle of some kind of cap.