Fears of care providers as MPs approve reform plans
SOCIAL-CARE providers spoke of their fears for the future as the government’s controversial plans to shake up the sector were approved.
MPs voted by 319 to 248 last night to back the measures, which include a 1.25 percentage point rise in National Insurance tax paid by workers and employers.
The increase is intended to raise an extra £36billion over three years, mostly towards clearing the NHS waiting list backlog, with £5.4billion of the total going towards social care.
But critics say it will place an unfair burden on younger, poorer workers.
And there are concerns that the extra money will not solve fundamental problems with social care such as staff shortages, low wages and a ‘ postcode lottery’ of provision.
Plans for an £86,000 cap on the amount a person spends on care in their lifetime have also been criticised after it emerged the limit will not be applied to food, accommodation and other living costs.
That raises the prospect that some may still have to sell their properties to afford to stay in a care home.
Jane Brightman, of the Institute of Health and Social Care Management, told The Daily Telegraph: ‘ Hotel costs are very expensive – it covers food, bedrooms, etc – and you’re still going to have to sell your home to pay for these things.
‘Where are you going to find that money from? It’s a bit misleading in the way this has been outlined.’
Joyce Pinfield, of the National Care Association, told BBC Breakfast: ‘We have over 100,000 vacancies in the workforce in social care and this is just getting greater on a daily basis. This is not helping us in any way to increase the workforce to make sure that we can give a good quality of care.’ Providers also want to see the ins and outs of a vow to ‘equalise’ care costs. Ministers say it is unfair that people covering their own bills often pay more than local councils funding places in the same homes for less well-off residents. But care firms need to know if the private individuals will be paying less – which they fear is unaffordable – or whether councils will be paying more. Sir David Behan, chair of the HC One chain, told the BBC: ‘There’s much detail that still needs to be put forward.’ The row led to a Commons clash when Boris Johnson failed to give a direct answer when asked by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer if he could ‘guarantee’ no-one would have to sell their home to pay for care. The PM said: ‘What this plan does is deal after decades with the catastrophic costs faced by millions, the risks that they could face the loss of their home, their possessions, their ability to pass on anything to their children.’