Pensioners will lose up to £300 in winter fuel payments and more elderly people could be forced to pay to be looked after in their own homes under Theresa May's plans to tackle the social care funding crisis.

The Tory manifesto launched today will offer protection from the cost of social care for people with assets of £100,000 or less, a dramatic increase from the current £23,250 level in England.

In order to make the system sustainable, the value of someone's property will now be included in the means test for care in their own home, meaning more people will be liable to contribute to the cost of being looked after.

And the winter fuel payment, worth between £100 and £300, will be means-tested and targeted at the least well-off pensioners instead of being a universal benefit paid to all.

It is also reported that Mrs May will risk further angering older voters by scrapping the triple-lock on the state pension, which guarantees it rises by the highest of average earnings, inflation or 2.5 per cent.

She will also ditch the "tax lock" introduced by David Cameron which forbids the Tories from raising income tax, VAT or national insurance contributions.

Other measures in the manifesto include:

  • Maintaining the commitment to reduce net migration to the "tens of thousands"
  • Increasing the amount levied on firms employing migrant workers
  • Requiring foreign workers and overseas students to pay more to cover the cost of NHS care
  • Scrapping universal free school lunches for infant pupils in England but offering free breakfasts across the primary years
  • Pumping an extra £4 billion a year into the schools system by 2022
  • A package of proposals to help consumers avoid being ripped off

Ahead of the publication of the Tory manifesto, Labour produced a dossier listing what it claimed were 50 broken Conservative promises.

Labour's campaign chief Andrew Gwynne said: "Theresa May pretends otherwise but she is a politician with a track record of failure and broken promises."