Decisions on how to fund long-term care for the elderly will not be taken for up to two years, the Government admitted, amid Labour accusations that it had abandoned cross-party talks.
Ministers will next week publish a progress report which backs the idea of imposing a cap on the total amount an individual should pay for care costs.
But a source conceded that there was "not any money available at the moment" and that no firm decisions on how to proceed would be taken until a spending review in 2013 or 2014.
That will probably rule out any change until after the next general election, due in 2015, which will anger campaigners who warn that it is one of the most pressing issues facing the country.
One of the most controversial factors is the rising number of pensioners forced to sell their homes to pay for care in a system which is itself desperately short of funding.
A £35,000 cap and a big rise in the means-tested asset threshold to £100,000 paid for by extra taxes on the elderly were recommended last year by the review chaired by economist Andrew Dilnot.
The progress report will be published next week alongside legislative proposals to review other parts of the state help for the elderly, including extra rights for carers and families.
Its scheduled appearance, without input from the Opposition, sparked a political row.
The source said there had only been three face-to-face meetings of the formal talks and none since February and that the Opposition was denied crucial information.
"Labour will have no input into the progress report and it will not reflect our judgment about what should be in it. This is a missed opportunity and we are deeply disappointed," a senior source said.
"By kicking the issue into the long grass, the Government are ignoring the current care crisis and the urgency of reforming our care system."
Simon Gillespie, who chairs the Care & Support Alliance, welcomed the commitment to a cap on costs in England - expected to be made on Wednesday - but said there remained "some big issues" of under-funding to resolve.
The Alliance, a consortium of more than 50 organisations representing older and disabled people, wrote to party leaders in May raising concerns that the talks appeared to have stalled.
"If it is genuinely the case that those talks have stalled then that will be very, very disappointing," Mr Gillespie told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said he was pleased with the "small measure of progress" of a commitment to a cap but said it was meaningless without agreement on how to fund it.
Mr Lansley, who said he had invited Mr Burnham to a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the contents, accepted his shadow's concerns over the need for detail.
"You can't be confident about the implementation of a cap on the costs that people have to pay unless you are also clear about how you meet the costs," he said.
Securing agreement with the Treasury on that key element at a time of spending cuts across the public services is the principle sticking point in the process.