Essential adult social care services for thousands of people have been placed under threat because of measures in the chancellor’s budget, it has been claimed.
Increases in employers’ national insurance contributions and the national living wage will be unaffordable for many organisations, leaving them struggling to provide care, charities say.
Community Integrated Care, one of the UK’s largest charities in the sector, and which employs 6,000 frontline staff, said it was facing an “eye-watering” £12m increase – a rise of 6.2% – in unfunded costs as a result.
Its chief executive Jim Kane said: “The chancellor’s budget will place many adult social care organisations in jeopardy, threatening essential services for thousands of people with care and support needs across the UK…
“Urgent action is needed. We hope this outcome is unintended and we urgently call on the chancellor to review the budget’s impact on the social care system, especially for charity providers.”
Mr Kane said the government must give local councils resources to increase fee levels in social care contracts to cover the additional costs, or grant an exemption to providers from the national insurance increase.
It comes after the government scrapped a plan for £1.1bn for social care reform shortly after coming to power.
A total of £600m was earmarked in Wednesday’s budget for social care, but critics said it was unlikely to be enough amid a recruitment and retention crisis in the sector.
Non-profit care providers and hospices employed by the government to provide public services are not exempt from the measures, although public sector charity services are.
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The National Care Forum, which represents non-profit organisations, said the budget appeared to run contrary to the insistence by Health Secretary Wes Streeting that a properly functioning adult social care system was needed to prop up the NHS.
Its chief executive Vic Rayner said: “Far from heralding a new dawn for social care, this historic budget appears to do little to recognise the vital role that social care plays in the lives of millions of people up and down the country.
“Adult social care providers will be hit particularly hard by the government’s planned changes to employers’ national insurance contributions.”
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Ms Rayner added: “It seems clear that this budget will not even provide the desperately needed stabilisation that every report, inquiry and select committee has demanded.
“Neither, unfortunately, does it reassure that this is a government committed to ensuring social care is understood, prioritised and invested in as a public service that changes people’s lives.”
While many in the sector have welcomed higher pay for staff, they warned it should not be at the expense of the services they provide.
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Hospice UK called on the Treasury to introduce exemptions for organisations that provide healthcare services on behalf of the NHS.
It said: “The national insurance increase for hospices makes it all the more important that the government commits to short-term emergency support for our sector, as well as long-term reform of how hospices are funded.
“The health secretary has acknowledged the challenges we have, with a majority of hospices’ income coming from charitable giving, not from the taxpayer.”
The Treasury has been approached for comment.
