CutsCheck: who cares about social care?
The cut
Councils up and down the country are preparing swingeing cuts to adult social care even before next month’s spending review is finalised. One way they’re getting ready for the age of austerity is by removing the ceiling on the amount the elderly and disabled pay for help with things like washing, dressing and going to the toilet. Oxfordshire has already taken action – and Lewisham, Warwickshire, Hertfordshire, and Hampshire are all consulting on removing a payments cap which was introduced by the government in 2003 to limit charges for care.
The background
Social care is paid for by local authorities, and unlike the health service, it isn’t ring fenced from spending cuts. The Communities and Local Government Department is facing budget reductions of 25-40 per cent. So town halls are preparing to take a scythe to social care spending to make ends meet.
That explains why many are planning to remove the cap the Labour government brought in in 2003 to make things fairer. As a result, elderly and disabled people will have to dig deeper into their pockets to fund their care.
The analysis
Councils aren’t going to wait for the Chancellor to tell them their share of the £83bn spending cuts ahead. They’re already reining in costs, and adult social care is first in line. It’s one of the biggest budgets town halls manage, so it was always going to be hit hard.
In Oxfordshire they’re braced for cuts as severe as 40 per cent from the Social and Community Services budget. And they’ve already started taking action. The council is now charging older people the maximum rate for care in their own homes, which is £15 an hour, and has doubled, to £10 a day, the cost of day services in council centres.
Raising the ceiling on charges is one of the easiest ways for councils to make the numbers add up. CutsCheck has discovered that Lewisham is consulting on plans to remove the cap, or raise the weekly ceiling to £395, up from £290 currently.
Warwickshire likewise is considering increasing its hourly charge for adult social care from £9.66 to £12.34 in December and £16.45 in April next year. It is also weighing up whether to ditch the cap. Hertfordshire is following suit.
Hampshire has this to say: “At present the council uses ‘caps’ which means that no-one contributes more than 95 per cent of their disposable income and the most anyone would pay towards the cost of their services is £440 per week, even if they could afford to pay substantially more. Under a new system, those who have been assessed as being able to pay more than £440 per week would be asked to do so.”
And Lincolnshire is looking at almost doubling the maximum charge from £126 to £250.
CutsCheck has also seen confidential documents from one council, laying bare the scale of pressure on the social care budgets. Rochdale council – run, like the government, by a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition – is planning savings of £2.98m from its “intermediate care” budget. That’s help for people leaving hospital. It’s also slashing £2.8m from community home care.
The Labour group leader on Rochdale council, Colin Lambert, told us that would mean the closure of two care homes. And he revealed that a total of £25m would be axed from the adult social care budget in Rochdale over the next two and a half years. That’s a cut of more than 50 per cent.
Speaking to CutsCheck, he said “the savagery of that cut means people will become ill, they will be readmitted to hospital, increasing the NHS budget. The lack of care… will lead to malnutrition, it will lead to serious illness. It will increase the re-admittance rate to hospital, and it will seriously lead to old people dying early needlessly.”
Although local authorities insist those on the lowest income will be protected from the worst of the cuts, charities for the elderly and disabled are seriously worried.
A coalition of 20 groups has written to council chief executives expressing concern. The letter, passed to CutsCheck, points out the social care cuts could be counter-productive. If people are denied help at home, they could end up in hospital, therefore costing the NHS more. “Denying people access to support … can result in additional costs. People may enter care homes rather than remaining in their own homes through not accessing support until experiencing crisis needs, which results in higher costs to local authorities,” the letter says.
The charity Disability Alliance said: “As a result of paying for essential services some disabled people are already living in poverty and unable to adequately eat or heat homes properly to maintain health. As councils are forced to implement national cuts they must take care not to further impoverish our most disadvantaged citizens.”
Cathy Newman’s verdict
The October spending review is really going to hurt adult social care. Many believe it’s short-sighted for the government to protect NHS spending, without doing the same for social care, particularly as people denied help at home may end up being an extra burden on the health service.
Because social care is one of the biggest budgets town halls manage, it was always going to bear the brunt of the cuts. And our findings show that councils are pre-empting the Chancellor’s announcement, and thinking the previously unthinkable in this area.
It seems odd that David Cameron is prepared to promise to save free bus passes for pensioners, while allowing local authorities to take chunks out of basic services for the elderly and disabled. The leader of the Labour group on Rochdale council says cuts on this scale will cause malnutrition or even deaths. Even allowing for some exaggeration for political effect, sadly this may not be as hyperbolic as it sounds.
There are 19 comments on this post
[...] 4 cuts check has documented the extent of cuts to adult social care that are starting to take place across [...]
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IMHO the answer for all those retired is to spend money on food essential for their wellbeing and to refuse to pay for electricity, gas, water and council tax if they cannot afford it.
They will then be taken to court (if those services dare) and can then offer to pay 1p per week as being the maximum they can afford to each.
Remember the European Convention on Human Rights ‘Guarantees a right to life’, thus food is essential as is the remainder so they MUST allow those too poor to pay to use the fuel regardless.
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When I left hospital recently, I was told there was no point in their referring me to the local social services, which were notoriously inadequate.
If they are going to be cut still further, the very least the government should do is the provide old people like me with the option of physician assisted suicide.
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In the 2010 Emergency Budget (after the Coalition took over from Labour) it announced that the Government would be spending MORE money than Labour, year-on-year, between 2011 and 2015 (with the given that Labour planned £600bn for 2009-2010):
2010-11=£637bn
2011-12=£651bn
2012-13=£664bn
2012-14=£679bn
2014-15=£693bn
That is £93bn per annum EXTRA money being spent by the Tories and Liberal Democrats by 2015! In total, between 2010 and the end of 2015, the Coalition are planning to spending an additional £324bn over that 5 years!
That’s not a cut that’s an increase in Government spending.
The government Capital Expenditure reduction plans – the so-called ‘cuts’ – are going to be spread over 4 years and total £61bn by 2015 – nowhere near the EXTRA £324bn being spent by the Coalition.
What your sources are discussing in this article are reductions forced upon them by the freezing of Council Tax. That freeze or restriction is essential as most Households are under serious financial strain.
These public bodies that spend OUR money have got to spend the money more efficiently and wisely to provide only the essential services needed not…
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Excellent blog. Targeting the most vulnerable- what an excellent “Big Society” we’re living in.
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The state of affairs is very, very sad. One can only hope for better days in the future.
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My sister recently applied for a secondment from her job as a mental health support worker within Gloucestershire, after being told that a new position had been created for home visitation and welfare assessments in the county. It wasn’t until she was given the position (one of 22), that it was revealed that the majority of her work would entail visiting individuals and families who received funding for themselves, or others in their care, and informing them of the cuts that they would have to deal with.
As a mental health support worker myself, I can only begin to imagine how difficult her job will be, and though she is continuing with the position, I know she has already been troubled by the extent and effect of the funding cuts- apparently around 75% in one case, resulting in a very distressed elderly gentleman.
On top of this my sister has, as part of her training, been forbidden from speaking to the media- I wonder why?
Now my concern is not only for the welfare of the elderly and those with physical and mental disabilities, but also for a member of my family’s well-being. If this is ‘Big Society’ in action then ‘society’ must’ve been redefined when I wasn’t…
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daver22 – nice idea ! Remember the thing that destroyed poll tax was not the demos but the courts being clogged up by those who refused to pay what they thought was an unfair tax . Nowadays you would be tried as a terrorist! It is only by sufficient numbers who refuse to lie down that change can be wrought.
Iain Crew – fine but I am a wrinkly and I get no reduction in my council tax – so if the worst comes to the worst I will be paying over and above my local tax. The idea that council tax is a massive burden is rubbish – most can afford another 100 PGB per year without missing much – unless a plasma screen is that important .
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Fingers crossed it’s not going to be another cold Winter.
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Most are agreed that cutting care for the infirm is cruel, and there’s another aspect in support. To wit: the effect on our overall economy and jobs.
We’ve just got the figures for April-June and upon which the IMF says we’re doing just fine.
Here’s Bloomberg’s New York top report:
“U.K. Growth Fueled by Jump in Government Spending
“The U.K. economy’s fastest quarter of growth in nine years was fuelled by rebounding consumer spending and inventories and the biggest jump in government spending since 2008″.
The British economy – and our jobs – are still being supported by the Labour Government’s spending. That includes the social care now under such drastic threat.
If social care spending is cut, we’ll each suffer. And if VAT rises sharply in the winter too, next year will be very painful for more than just the infirm and vulnerable.
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Social Care has been, and still is, the worst manaaged sector in Britain. Managed by freemasons and inexperienced councilfat cats and politicians, it has squandered millions over the years. Absence of accountability and transparency allowed many cowboys, friends and relatives of council’s directors and senior managers to scoop millions on the back of the vulnerable.In addition, there is a lot of duplication in administration of care such as THREE quangos established ober 8 years to duplicate Social Services so called “Inspection”.
Open the books of ANY Social Services department and I bet that you will find many many skeletons.
The whole thing is a mess and if a whistle blower like my self opens his mouth, he is immediately and heavily punished so that the gravy train continues.
Sadly, unfortunately, British media are part of this cover up and until such time when a clean government comes to power in Britain the dark days for the elderly, the disabled and alll who really need care will contiue.
For more scams visit:
http://www.socialscareuk.webs.com
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Channel 4. Why moderate articles in what is supposed to be a democracy and what you claim is a free and open channel?
You can allow obscene language on your channel even during day time transmission but scrutinise article exposing corruption -for whose sake?
In my opinion, A good honest channel or publication should adhere to a “What Yoy Submit Is What We Publish” WYSIWWEP” policy – Something that never existed in world media so far.
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[...] 4 Cuts Check has documented the extent of cuts to adult social care that are starting to take place across [...]
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Having followed my comment above by another predicting that Channel 4 will not publish it as happened before, I was surprised that they did publish it word for word. Apology is due 4 Channel 4 hoping they will continue presenting whistle blowers views because this is the how good honest media should operate- for the sake of the public.
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Derbyshire County Council are currently “consulting” about their plans to remove help from 6,000 people in their homes,charging at least £1,000 a year from the remainder and intending to make (subject to a hated means-test)people who have essential equipment(stair-lifs,steplifts,hoists etc)which are on loan pay for maintenance .They were elected last year on the categorical assurance they would not introduce charging and are weaselling out of this promise by calling it co-funding.
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I suggest that the 6000 and those going to be charged £1000 tell the council where to go.
I suggest they also refuse to pay their council tax since that is what is funding their care and they are refusing to provide the care they undertook to provide. Its called fraud BTW when they state one thing and do another.
They could also walk into the local store and select their food and just walk out without paying. They will then be arrested and taken evenetually to court where they will have no option but to dismiss as there is insufficient space.
We have to get MILITANT as we are paying far too much for the fats cats to live especially the EU. Get the money back write to your MP just DONT accept it meekly.
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What hindle mentioned above is just a drop in the ocean of what Councils up and down the country intend to demolish. Instead of demolishing essential care, they ought to look at the real waste which, if they are unable to see, should be decided by outside investigators who understand care such as doctors.
In my opinion, Social Care should be amalgamated with health care and moved from councils to the NHS.
http://www.socialscareuk.webs.com
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Agree completely
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