Elderly 'betrayed" over care funding reform However, while ministers said they supported the "principle" of this scheme, they could not commit to introducing such a system, which would cost the taxpayer an estimated £2 billion a year. David Cameron, George Osborne, Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, are believed to have decided to delay the decision on how or whether to pay for the reforms until the next comprehensive spending review, expected in 2013 or 2014. Mr Lansley said state funds faced "immense financial pressures." "I'm not going to pre-empt the outcome of the spending review, but the fact is that we are in a situation with a structural deficit we have to eliminate," he said. An alternative plan would see individuals pay a one-off sum, expected to be several thousand pounds, to "opt in" to a state-funded cap on care costs in retirement. Mr Dilnot told The Daily Telegraph he was pleased that ministers supported his proposals in principle but "disappointed" that there was no commitment to introducing the reforms. "I'm slightly disappointed that we haven't got a final decision, but hopeful that we will get one," he said. Mr Dilnot also warned that the Department of Health's suggested cap on care costs of £75,000 was "rather higher than I would like to see as a starting level." The Care and Support Alliance, which includes 65 of the leading care groups, said the White Paper had "failed" in providing an urgent funding reform and had left older people feeling "betrayed." Age UK, the charity, Saga insurers, the Royal College of Nursing, social workers groups, charities for disabled people and the Roman Catholic Church voiced disappointment that there was no commitment on funding from Mr Lansley. The King's Fund, a health think tank, said there was a "financial vacuum" at the heart of the proposals. Julia Unwin, of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a policy research charity, said the lack of a commitment on funding would leave the NHS unsustainable.