Chancellor announces £650m for social care but only £240m is ringfenced for adults

Chancellor Philip Hammond announced in the budget that the government is giving local authorities an extra £650m to spend on social care, but only £240m of this is ringfenced for adult social care.

It will be up to councils if they spend the remaining £410m on either adult social care or children’s services. Councils will also receive an additional £55m for the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) in 2018-19 to fund adaptations for people with disabilities.

In his speech, Mr Hammond said “the era of austerity is finally coming to an end” and called it a “budget for the “strivers, the grafters and the carers who are the backbone of our communities and our economy”.

However Nick Forbes, deputy leader of the Local Government Association tweeted that the budget shows “austerity isn't over for local government” and said “don't be fooled by the Chancellor's claim of an extra £650m for adult social care - they're also making a £1.3bn cut to council budgets next year. So overall they're still actually cutting £650m!”.

Elderly and disabled forced to compete with children for money

Glen Garrod, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), said: “The detail in the Red Book reveals that the announced funding of £650m for social care is in fact a core of £410m which will need to be negotiated in local councils between children and adult services – both of which are hard pressed.

“The detail in the budget creates an invidious situation affecting older and disabled people locally. Their needs will be competing with those of different Council departments, projected overspends, dwindling or exhausted reserves, supporting NHS needs and the needs of children and young people.”

Richard Murray, director of Policy at The King’s Fund, said the social care system “cannot continue to get by on last-minute, piecemeal funding announcements”.

He added: “Adult social care in England needs at least £1.5bn more per year simply to cope with demand, meaning that the funding announced today – which will also need to cover children's social care – falls far short.”

Extra money is a 'drop in the ocean'

The Independent Care Group welcomed the extra money for councils in England but its chair Mike Padgham said: “It goes nowhere near addressing the funding gap on social care, expected to be £3.5bn within seven years and the £7bn that has been cut from social care spending in the past eight years.”

He called it “a drop in the ocean” and said: “This money, whilst welcome, is not going to address the crisis in social care that is seeing care homes close, homecare providers hand back unviable contracts, extra care providers struggling and, above all, 1.4m people going without the care they need.”

Mr Padgham also voiced the need for the “long-promised green paper”.

'People with dementia have been forgotten'

His anxiety over the extra injection of cash just propping up the social care system was echoed by Alzheimer’s Society chief executive Jeremy Hughes, who added that the money “does nothing for people with dementia who are footing the bill themselves, while people with other diseases are getting free support through the NHS”.

Mr Hughes said: “We’re told austerity is over, but people living with dementia have been forgotten, and the Budget was a missed opportunity to end this injustice. Now the pressure is on for the government to create a properly funded and joined-up system that can deliver high quality dementia care.”

Dan Scorer, head of policy & public affairs at Mencap called the £650m for social care “a sticking plaster for a system that teeters on the edge of crisis”.

He said: “Much larger sums are needed to prevent more people with a learning disability becoming isolated in their own homes and struggling to meaningfully take part in society."

Universal Credit

After a huge public outcry over the controversial Universal Credit, the government has pledged an extra £1.7bn. The increases to work allowances will mean working parents and people with disabilities claiming Universal Credit will be £630 better off each year, according to the government. People will also receive extra help as they move from their existing benefits to Universal Credit and there will be targeted support for people repaying debts.

In response to this, Mr Scorer said: “The government has started to listen on the huge problems with Universal Credit, but has done little to address the massive loss of financial support faced by disabled people due to disability premiums being abolished."

NHS and mental health

He welcomed the budget increase for the NHS of £20.5bn, saying: “We welcome the desperately needed, additional funding for the NHS. Some of this money can now be used to pay for the comprehensive training nurses and doctors need on learning disability, tackling the 1,200 avoidable deaths of people with a learning disability each year.”

The government also announced that mental health spending will see a boost of over £2bn a year by 2023-24.

Richard Murray, director of Policy at The King’s Fund, said: “Two billion pounds for mental health confirms the early signals that this would be a key priority for the forthcoming NHS long-term plan.

“But years of underfunding have taken their toll and this is no more than a small step on the road to parity of esteem. Mental health services need more than money to meet demand.

“A chronic shortage of mental health staff means that, despite the new funding, the service won’t improve until the government and the NHS provide a plan to increase the workforce.”

National Living Wage and Personal Tax Allowance

In his speech, Mr Hammond also announced that from April 2019 the National Living Wage will increase from £7.83 an hour to £8.21. This will benefit around 2.4 million workers, and is a £690 annual pay rise for a full-time worker.

In addition, the Personal Allowance – the amount you earn before you have to start paying income tax– will increase by a further £650 in April 2019 to £12,500. This rise comes a year earlier than planned.

It Is also good news for higher earners with the Higher Rate Threshold increasing from £46,350 to £50,000 in April 2019.

The government will also give more money to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, to spend in devolved areas, including education, health and housing. Scotland will receive over £950m, Wales £550m and Northern Ireland £320m up to 2020-21.