Care leaders warn social care is 'more than discharge arm of NHS' as Hunt delays cap

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said in his Autumn Statement speech that there were "very difficult times ahead" for people and said he must delay a cap on social care costs by two years but angry care leaders are warning that care is "much more than the discharge arm of the NHS".

From October 2023, the government had planned to introduce a new £86,000 cap on the amount anyone in England has to spend on their personal care over their lifetime, but the policy is now being pushed back to 2025.

Jeremy Hunt to use social care to ‘free up 13,500 hospital beds’

Mr Hunt said he’d “listened to extensive representations about the challenges facing the social care sector.“

“I also heard very real concerns from local authorities particularly about their ability to deliver the Dilnot reforms immediately. So I will delay the implementation of this important reform for two years, allocating the funding to allow local authorities to provide more care packages."

To get the social care system to help free up 13,500 hospital beds “occupied by those who should be at home”, Mr Hunt announced additional grant funding for adult social care of £1 billion next year and £1.7 billion the year after.

The Chancellor said the extra cash equates to extra funding for the social care sector of up to £2.8 billion in 2023 and £4.7 billion in 2024. But Mr Hunt, the former Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, previously admitted when Chair that the adult social care sector needed an extra £7 billion a year just to stand still.

Mr Hunt admitted it was a "source of great regret" to delay capping costs on social care but the postponement of the cap means the government can increase funding to local authorities by £4.7 billion - which he describes as "the biggest ever increase in social care".

Mr Hunt said he believes in reforms recommended by economist Sir Andrew Dilnot but insisted the cap on care costs is "not disappearing into the ether".

In his Autumn Statement, Mr Hunt announced £55 billion in tax rises and a squeeze in public spending in response to rising inflation. Scrapping the care cap saves £1 billion in the first year alone.

Care home leader: Social care is 'more than the discharge arm of the NHS’

Vic Rayner, chief executive of The National Care Forum (NCF), which represents care homes, said: “Fundamentally, care and support services are so much more than the ‘discharge arm’ of the NHS. The government must start to recognise this.

“Social care is about people, not packages and whilst discharge is vital, great social care changes lives and matters to us all.

“All the money announced is of course hugely welcome” but she added “for the money to make a real difference it must address the fundamental inequities that people receiving care and working in the care sector experience every day. These relate to the pay, terms and conditions of the workforce, and access to the care that you want when you need it.”

Mr Hunt also announced a rise in the National Living Wage (NLW) from £9.50 per hour to £10.42 per hour, after he accepted the recommendation of the Low Pay Commission to increase it by 9.7 per cent next year.

Ms Rayner added: “It is right that our workforce deserves the increase in the NLW, and much more in terms of reward and recognition. However, to realise this, the government must set out how it intends to fund councils to meet the full costs of the NLW increase for all of the care workforce."

Age UK charity: Government should ’follow through' with cap

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK said: “We regret the decision to delay the cap on catastrophic care costs for two years because Prime Minister Boris Johnson had made a firm commitment to introduce it in 2023 and having raised public expectations so high we feel it was right for this government to follow through.

“Although the cap as currently proposed is considerably less generous than we wanted, it is a start and something to build on. Delaying it by a further two years raises serious questions over whether it will ever be introduced at all.”

Other measures announced by the Chancellor include restoring the triple lock in 2023, which will see a 10.1 per cent increase on state pensions and pension credit next April. The new flat-rate state pension (for people who reached state pension age after April 2016) will be £203.85 a week (currently £185.15). The new rate for the old basic state pension (those who reached state pension age before April 2016) will be £156.20 a week (currently £141.85).

Care home leader: Sums ‘fall well short of what is needed’

Mike Padgham, Chair of the Independent Care Group (ICG) which represents care homes and home care providers, said: “All extra funding is good, but without sounding churlish, the sums announced today fall well short of what is needed.

“The extra money is welcome, but will it increase staff pay to tackle the 165,000 vacancies in social care staff? No. Will it help us make inroads into the 1.6m who can’t get care? Very little, if any.”

Mr Padgham said he was “not sure putting that pressure on to local council tax payers is the answer” and “councils will only be able to raise council tax by so much and that won’t be enough to tackle the problems social care is facing on the ground.”

He called it “most disappointing” the government’s decision to delay the cap of social care costs for a further two years, “ensuring people will continue to face catastrophic care costs and continue to sell their homes to pay for care – breaking the government’s 2019 manifesto pledge.”