The economist behind the government’s plan to cap social care costs has said he is “astonished, puzzled and deeply disappointed” at the delay until October 2025 of proposed reforms announced by the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt.
Sir Andrew Dilnot, who has advised successive Conservative-led governments on fixing a sector whose struggles are causing severe discharge backlogs in the NHS, told the Guardian he welcomed announcements of up to £4.7bn in extra money for adult social care in England.
However, he added that the government had now broken a 2019 manifesto promise to “fix social care” and implement changes that were finalised a year ago. They included raising the amount of assets a person can have before getting state funding for social care from £23,250 to £100,000 as well as capping lifetime care costs at £86,000.
The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, described the announcement of a two-year delay in Thursday’s autumn statement as “another broken promise after 12 years of Tory failure on social care”.
Dilnot said: “Without these reforms, individuals and families facing the possibility of long social care journeys are left entirely on their own, with the state only helping once assets, including housing, are down to £23,250.
“We heard much today about compassion as a British value, and about the way that the government was seeking to protect the most vulnerable. It is hard to think of a more vulnerable group than those with significant care needs and yet this group is put, again, at the bottom of the priority list.”
In an article for the Guardian, Dilnot wrote: “The way we treat those in need of social care is a strong indicator of how we care about the most vulnerable people. This group has been denied the sharing of risk that we apply most strikingly in the National Health Service, but also through our wider social security system. Just over a year ago, a promise was made to these people by the prime minister. To break that promise now is not only backing out of protecting vulnerable people, but it’s also taking away something on which they were relying.”
In May, while out of government, Hunt said he regretted failing to secure a long-term plan to transform the social care system while health secretary. His announcement on Thursday of up to £4.7bn in extra money for adult social care was substantial.
Council adult social services directors said it provides “some welcome relief and [will] lessen some of the impact of the current crises”. MHA, the largest not-for-profit care home provider, said Hunt, who as a backbencher called for a £7bn injection, had taken “the smallest steps in terms of turning his words into actions”. But it did not come close to the minimum amounts estimated to be needed by the sector and local councils.
Dilnot last month said social care needed an extra £6bn over three years. Councils have said £13bn is needed immediately – of which £6bn would be used to increase care worker pay, meet demography and inflation pressures and stabilise the provider market, and £7bn used to ensure local authorities are able to deliver on all of their statutory duties.
The Care Providers Alliance had called for a “1948 moment”, a reference to the creation of the National Health Service.
An estimated 540,000 people are awaiting care, financial assessment, or a review.
Dilnot said many families had been “relying since September [last year] on the announcement the government made that these reforms would be implemented in October 2023. That promise now appears to be broken, despite having been agreed by both Houses of Parliament and being given the royal assent.”
He added: “Simply delaying these reforms by two years does not change in any way the long-run balance between taxation and public spending, so cannot be a part of a coherent response to the public finance challenge the country faces.”
