FOR NURSING AND RESIDENTIAL CARE HOMES
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THECARER_UK
Issue 216
Care Sector Backlash As Chancellor’s Budget “Overlooks” Social Care Measures announced in Chancellor Rachel Reeve’s Autumn Statement will make it harder to provide care to older, vulnerable and disabled adults, campaigners have warned. In her first budget the Chancellor announced that social care services will receive an extra £600m at least in government grant funding next year, as part of a settlement for local authorities in England that will see their available budgets rise by an estimated 3.2% in real terms in 2025-26, compared with this year. The existing social care grant – worth just over £5bn in 2024-25 – enables authorities to spend money as they wish on adults’ or children’s services.
The extra £600m is worth about 1.5% of the £38.6bn councils have budgeted to spend on adults’ and children’s social care in 2024-25. The Chancellor also confirmed that the national living wage would rise by 6.7% in April 2025, to £12.21 per hour, benefiting many thousands of care workers and further announced increases in employers National Insurance contributions, with the amount businesses will pay on their employees’ national insurance contributions increasing from 13.8% to 15% from April 2025, with the current £9,100 annual threshold lowered to £5,000, in what she called a “difficult choice” to make.
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