Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
England’s largest councils have called on the new Labour government to postpone the rollout of a cap on social care costs until at least 2026, warning of a £30bn “black hole” in funding for the plans.
The County Council Network, which represents 37 of England’s biggest local authorities, on Friday said government plans to cap the amount individuals contribute towards care costs would be “impossible to implement” by October 2025, when they are due to take effect.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has inherited the proposals from the last Conservative administration after an election campaign in which social care was barely mentioned, despite the millions of people affected by England’s increasingly threadbare provision for the elderly and disabled.
No new money had been committed to the plans since 2022, the CCN added on publication of analysis by consulting group Newton, which estimated that the overall cost of delivering the policy has risen to as much as £30bn over nine years.
Councils had little chance meanwhile of recruiting the staff needed to make them workable, the body added.
“To put it bluntly, it will be impossible to implement these reforms next autumn in the current timescales and with no funding committed,” said Martin Tett, adult social care spokesperson at the CCN.
“We have always supported the principles of the reforms, as they will make the system fairer. But if the government is to proceed with the reforms, then it must delay them by at least a year,” he added.
Reforms to limit the lifetime costs any individual must contribute towards their personal care in England were first adopted more than a decade ago. They were endorsed, after several delays, by then prime minister Boris Johnson in 2021, as part of his claim to have “fixed” social care.
The £86,000 cap was originally due to come into effect in October 2023, accompanied by a more generous means test that would ensure anyone with assets worth less than £23,250 would not pay for their care at all.
But the last Conservative administration again delayed rollout by two years, leaving the new Labour government with the challenge of how to fund it.
Health secretary Wes Streeting committed to introducing the cap during the election campaign, but the pledge did not appear in Labour’s manifesto.
Government officials said ministers were considering advice on how to rebuild adult social care and no decisions had yet been made.
The Newton analysis showed the cap would disproportionately benefit wealthier parts of England, where a higher proportion of the population self-funds social care at present. Councils in the south-east and south-west of England combined accounted for 61 per cent of the total cumulative cost of the policy.
Since 2023, funds worth £2.9bn a year that would have gone towards the changes have instead been reallocated to help councils finance the rising day-to-day cost of delivering social care, which was exacerbating the financial difficulties of many local authorities.
Tett said councils had quickly become dependent on this funding boost, and that removing it now would have a “devastating” effect.
Eight in 10 councils surveyed for the CCN report said withdrawing the extra funds would damage their ability to fulfil their legal duties in delivering adult social care. Six in 10 suggested they would in effect be bankrupted.
The Department of Health and Social Care said it would be “taking steps to create a National Care Service underpinned by national standards, delivering consistency of care across the country.
“We are going to grip the social care crisis, starting with the workforce by delivering a new deal for care workers,” it added.
Credit: Source link
