“With this Autumn Statement the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has gone from hero to zero on social care. Last year we applauded him when he ordered a significant increase in funding to keep services from collapsing but this year, despite clear warnings from local government about the likelihood of further cuts to care, he has offered nothing. And what’s more, even though the rise in minimum wage is thoroughly welcome and deserved, without additional funding the cost of providing, or buying social care, will be going up.

“Meanwhile, nearly half a million older and disabled people in England are waiting for care, a direct payment or for their care needs to be assessed, and with care services so shaky the pressure is constantly increasing on unpaid carers to fill the gap. All these figures will now get worse, and behind every one of them there are individual stories of older people struggling and often failing to live a good and decent life, since without the care they need they are unable to do the basics like prepare meals and take their medication, or, in the case of many disabled people, work, train and enjoy the company of friends.  

“Boris Johnson was cheered by his colleagues when he pledged to ‘fix the crisis in social care’ some four and a half years ago but today’s Statement was a reminder of how desperately short the Government has fallen. Transformational reform is still badly needed in social care, but for now the prospect of it has disappeared out of sight, and millions of older and disabled people, and their unpaid carers, are paying a very high price.”

Caroline Abrahams, Care and Support Alliance Co-Chair