Social care leaders have warned that another delay in the government’s long-promised cap on care costs would be a “slap in the face” for the struggling sector.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is reportedly preparing to put back the £86,000 cap on the amount people pay for care across their lifetime by a year or more.
And now there are further uncertainties over the planned reforms after the resignation of prime minister Liz Truss on Thursday.
Mike Padgham, chair of the Independent Care Group which provides services in North Yorkshire and York, said not introducing the cap as planned in October 2023 would be a “betrayal” of people who are facing the “nightmare of paying their care costs and having to sell their homes to do so”.
He said:
“It is seven years since the introduction of a cap on care costs was first hit by delays and we cannot keep seeing this reform get kicked further and further down the road.”
Sue Cawthray, chief executive of care charity Harrogate Neighbours, also said there had been no let up for the sector which is struggling with rising costs and staffing shortages, and that another delay by the government would be a “slap in the face”.
She said:
“We seem to be stuck on a merry-go-round and just can’t get off because of all the challenges that are being thrown at us.
“When is the government going to recognise the terrible situation that health and social care finds itself in?”
Although the reforms are planned for next October, the cap and other measures which mean people with assets under £20,000 won’t have to contribute to their care costs are due to be trialled several months earlier in North Yorkshire.
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North Yorkshire County Council was chosen as one of six local authorities to introduce the changes in January as part of a “trailblazer” scheme.
The authority declined to comment on the national reports of delays.
The long-awaited reforms to fix the broken social care system come as the average weekly cost of residential care in the Harrogate district has risen to £1,029.
That figure remains the highest in North Yorkshire and is equivalent to almost £54,000 a year.