Shake-up to Social Care?...
What’s the Problem?
One could argue that the social care system is broken. I don’t think that’s a particularly controversial statement. For those who need to access care, it can also be extremely difficult (and quite intimidating) to navigate the system.
Unlike NHS healthcare, social care is not free at the point of use and local authority funding is only available to those with the least money. The NHS will only cover the costs of care through something called NHS Continuing Healthcare but that’s only for people with complex health needs and it’s difficult to qualify.
Here’s Some Stats for You
The eye-watering costs of care mean that older people are often forced to sell their homes to fund support in later life. In fact, selling the home was the main source of funding for 24% of those going into a care home according to a witch survey in January 2021.
In 2019 to 2020 the average cost of a residential care home for an older person in the UK was £672 a week. We live in the South-east and, therefore, the cost is likely to be quite a bit higher. I think, down here, we’d be happy to only pay £672 a week!
In 2010 the Dilnot Commission estimated 50% of people aged 65 and over will spend up to £20,000 on care costs and 10% would face costs of more than £100,000. These figures will be higher now.
In 2019/20, 838,530 adults received publicly funded long-term social care, primarily in care and nursing homes or in their own homes. In addition, there were 231,295 episodes of short-term care provided.
In 2019/20, local authorities received 1.9 million requests for support from new clients – 560,000 from working age adults and 1.4 million were from older people.
According to the NHS, Age UK estimates 1.5 million people in England don’t have access to the support they need.
Social care requests in England have risen by more than 100,000 per year in five years, according to the NHS.
And then there’s the ongoing problem of staff shortages in social care with many care providers saying they’re struggling to recruit.
So, it looks a little bit grim based on the current social care framework which is why the government have tried to do something about it. I’m not sure whether they’ll achieve utopia but it does seem to be a start and is finally generating a grown-up conversation about this issue.
The Changes?
So, what’s the government proposing to do about it? You’ve probably read a bit about it recently but I thought I’d give you some highlights on the proposed changes.
From October 2023, no one arranging support (such as home care or residential care) will pay more than £86,000 in their lifetime in care costs. People with less than £20,000 won’t pay anything towards their care from their assets and those with assets under £100,000 will get some means-tested state support.
This is quite a big change because, at the moment, there’s no limit in theory to how much someone might have to pay for their care and, previously, a person only qualified for support if they had less than £23,250. To me, this feels pretty radical.
To pay for this, there will be a new ‘health and social care levy’ that the government say will help fund the new care system and address the financial challenges in the NHS. From April 2022, National Insurance contributions and dividend taxes will increase by 1.25% which will raise £36bn over the next three years.
The government also intends to tackle ‘persistent unfairness’ in the system by allowing self-funders to ask their local authority to arrange care on their behalf, so they can get a better deal. Currently, people who fund their own care usually pay higher fees than people who are funded by their local council.
Some Small Print
The cap of £86,000 would only cover the cost of a care home that a person’s local authority was willing to pay for (not, for example, a more expensive one, even if it would be more convenient).
Conclusions?
Social care is an incredibly emotive and political subject. There will be lots of people who disagree with these changes and lots of people who think they’re a good idea.
In my view, the government have tried to be radical but time will tell if these proposals will result in a social care system that’s fit for our current times. I have an open mind and try to be positive!
I’m not sure what you might think about these proposed changes but I’d love to hear about them. We certainly can’t ignore the issue as our population ages.
I hope you found this little article useful I look forward to catching up with you soon…