Care home funding is slipping further away from "fair" cost levels and ability to invest in long-term care, Laing & Buisson research has shown.
Laing & Buisson's latest revision to the fourth edition of the Fair Price for Care toolkit has found that dependency levels of care home and nursing home residents have risen faster than expected.
The research analyst behind the figures claims that if the Dilnot Commission proposals were implemented, the funding would still fail to cover even half the costs needed for fair financing.
The research states that together with minimal increases in state funding for care home places the majority of public sector funding agencies are not paying sufficient fees to encourage care home operator investment in capacity for state-funded clients.
The revised figures show that average fee rate currently being paid by councils for residential care is now £50 each week below the "floor" rate - the rate applied to physically poor quality care homes whose physical environment is on the borderline of acceptability.
Laing & Buisson's annual survey of baseline fees, the rates councils will pay for care beds, have shown these failing to keep pace with inflation for the last three years.
In the financial year 2011/12, baseline fee rates increased on average by 0.3%, compared with estimated home cost increases of 2.8%.
The toolkit research highlights concerns about the future of social care funding. The figures are drawn from splitting care home costs into four main areas: care, accommodation, ancillary support and operator's profits.
William Laing, chief executive, said: "The care element of costs - which would be insured by the state under the Dilnot recommendations - would in actual fact cover well under half of these new ‘fair fees', stretching to around 33% for residential care and 45% for nursing care. This means that the majority of costs will still fall to individuals.
"Whoever works out what the state will cover will also have to make a decision on whether it will cover just the bare care costs, or if it will add in a reasonable operator's mark up of around 10% in which to help create a sustainable care home economy and to encourage the capacity building which all research points towards a great need of."
The Fair Price for Care toolkit aims to provide a consistent and evidence-based means of calculating reasonable operating costs within efficient facilities.
