A four-year delay in capping care costs and increasing the level of assets those in residential care can retain has been condemned as "a real blow to many older people and their families". But the criticism by Labour MP and former Manchester Jewish welfare chief Ivan Lewis was stronger than from current charity bosses, who qualified their disappointment with concern that the original legislation was flawed and confusing.

Under the Care Act 2014, the individual cost of care - not accommodation and food - was to be capped at £72,000 from next April. At the same time, the level of assets below which someone in care could claim local authority funding would have risen from £23,250 to £118,000.

Implementation has now been postponed until April 2020, which Department of Health press officer Tom Fairchild attributed to "part of the wider budgetary pressures we're under". It was also a result of the concerns of councils, "who are saying 'it's too soon, we need a delay'."

Mr Lewis attacked the postponement as "a broken promise by David Cameron. The ageing society and costs of care are among the biggest challenges facing our country. The cap on care costs is far from perfect but was at least a first step in recognising the gravity of the problem facing many families."

Jewish Care's director of care and community services, Neil Taylor, believed the delayed changes "would have been a first step in helping people to quantify the costs for their care.

"However, there were deficiencies in the plans which could have left people requiring care with an undefined liability. In our view, the legislation did not give sufficient assurance to people needing care, to care providers, to local authorities, nor to the insurance industry."

Mark Cunningham, chief operating officer for Manchester's leading Jewish welfare charity, The Fed, said that although there would be public disappointment, "the reality was there was little benefit. I am surprised by the decision from a political perspective but not from a practical one.

"The care cap was not fully understood by people generally and the local authorities were struggling to create a system through which they could monitor people's care account reliably, accurately and economically."

Mr Taylor also pointed out that charities such as Jewish Care were reeling from the potential impact of George Osborne's Budget announcement of a £9 an hour national living wage by 2020."The money being saved from the non-implementation [of capping] should now be diverted to avert a disaster in social care, which is in desperate need of funding."