The budget is alarming for not-for-profit social care providers because it will put us under pressure to meet the increases in tax costs across our workforce. Our initial analysis indicates that the changes to national insurance will cost us £5m next year. In addition to this, the increase in the national living wage will increase our wage bill by £10.2m and give us less scope to maintain differentials between entry-level and more experienced colleagues, which is vital to retain them.
The NHS has received a huge amount of funding – £21bn over two years – compared to a mere £600m split between children’s and adult social care. This won’t be enough to cover the increased costs we’ll face, and we will be reliant on uplifts from local government commissioners to pay for these increases. From what we can see, the budget does not provide the extra funding local authorities will need to support this.
We need funding now to help us recruit more staff and stabilise the sector. This budget adds to the financial pressure we already face. It is very clear that the actions taken in this budget do not match the rhetoric from the Department of Health and Social Care since the election about the need to fix the social care sector. We welcomed the government’s fair pay agreement, but this isn’t likely to be implemented for another two years. We need action now, rather than more promises of tomorrow.
Rachael Dodgson
Chief executive, Dimensions
• Hourglass, the only UK-wide charity dedicated to ending the abuse, harm, exploitation and neglect of older people, is deeply concerned about the detrimental impact that national insurance increases will have on essential service provision. We had hoped that the third sector would be exempt from such damaging changes, including the reduction in the secondary threshold.
With a rapidly ageing population meaning that an estimated 9.6 million more older people will be in the UK by 2050, it’s clear that our specialist support services are going to be needed more, not less. This budget puts yet another hurdle in front of services that are in desperate need of support.
We urge the chancellor to think again.
Richard Robinson and Andrea Nicholas-Jones
CEO and chair, Hourglass (Safer Ageing)
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