In the Spring Budget, Chancellor Philip Hammond committed additional grant funding of £2 billion to social care in England over the next three years, with £1 billion available in 2017-18.
Hammond said this will allow local authorities to act now to commission new care packages.
However, Bob Champion (pictured), chairman of the Later Life Academy, does not believe the move is enough.
He said: “I’m afraid the £2bn extra funding is a sticking plaster to relieve the current issues in the NHS and Care Services. Plus the statement has actually introduced more uncertainty as to what the future relationship will be between state and privately-funded care provision.
“When talking about the forthcoming Green Paper on the future funding options for social care, Hammond probably signalled the death of the care cap. If that is the case then, by the time consultation on the Green Paper is concluded, legislation has passed through Parliament and administration processes are put in place, the current existing system will continue until 2022 not 2020 as currently intended.
“Now that Hammond has ruled out a ‘death tax’ what are the alternatives? National Insurance Contributions (NICs) could be considered unfair on the young. However today’s moves on NICs for the self-employed could be seen as an indication of a way of raising more care funding. Introducing NICs at a special rate for those over State pension age could also be seen as a way of ensuring the ageing population contributes towards the cost of the care they will need, without placing the burden on younger generations.
“However, what has effectively happened is that this extra funding has been used by politicians to kick care funding into the long grass so it becomes tomorrow’s problem. Unfortunately, it does not give families any certainty about what they will need to fund and what care services they will receive from the State.”
