Over £3 billion a year will be spent on integrated health and social care, chancellor George Osborne pledged today in the 2013 Spending Review.
Osborne said this funding would prevent people from worrying if services came from the NHS or local council.
Documents accompanying the review said the treasury would put £3.8 billion into a pooled budget for health and social care services to work "more closely together" in local areas to deliver better services to older and disabled people.
Meanwhile, £200 million would be made available for local authorities from the NHS in 2014-15 for investment in new systems and ways of working
In today's speech, the chancellor said: "Many older people do not just use the NHS, they also use the social care system.
"If we are honest they often fall between the cracks of the two systems, being pushed from pillar to post and not getting the care they should. None of us here would want that for our parents or grandparents, and in a compassionate society no one should endure it. It's a failure that costs billions. Britain can do better."
In the 2010 Spending Review, the NHS made available around £1 billion a year to support the health needs of people in social care.
Osborne added: "Let's stop the tragedy of people being dropped in A&E on a Friday night to spend the weekend in hospital because we can't look after them properly in social care.
"It's a huge and historic commitment of resources to social care, tied to real reform on the ground, to help end the scandal of older people trapped in hospitals because they cannot get a social care bed. This will help relieve pressures on Accident & Emergency. It will help local government deliver on its obligations. And it will save the NHS at least a billion pounds."
In addition, £335 million will be made available to local authorities in 2015-16 to prepare for social care funding reforms, including the introduction of a cap on care costs from April 2016 and a universal deferred payment scheme from April 2015; Spending Review documents said.
Although Association of Directors of Social Services president Sandie Keene welcomed the move, she warned:"The benefits gained from closer integration with the services provided by our health colleagues will be rendered less valuable if the intricate relationship with other services is threatened by severe downward pressures on local government as a whole."
