Co-Chairs of the Care and Support Alliance – Caroline Abrahams (Charity Director at Age UK) and Mark Lever (Chief Executive at the National Autistic Society) said:
“Today the Government failed to recognise the immediate crisis in social care, one that cannot wait for future reforms to be resolved.
“A £2.5 billion funding gap is estimated by 2019/20 (1). More than a million older and disabled people are without the care they need to do basics like get out of bed, eat, or go to the toilet (2) – let alone leave the house or take part in a social life.
“Without proper funding more people will be denied the care they need, more carers will be pushed to breaking point, more providers will go out of business and the NHS will have to spend millions more picking up the pieces of inadequate social care. Also without extra funding the threat of complete market collapse remains.
“The Government needs to plug the gap in social care funding while working on reforms that look at the whole social care system and address the needs of working age disabled adults, older people and their carers.”
- (1) https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/autumn-budget-2017
- (2) Age UK, February 2017, Briefing: Health and Care of Older People in England 2017
