Yorkshire care home owner slams Jeremy Hunt for lack of social care reform

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt leaves 11 Downing Street, London, for the House of Commons to deliver his autumn statement.

Social care leaders have said Jeremy Hunt’s commitments to the sector will go nowhere near what is needed to fix the crisis in staffing.

Mr Hunt confirmed in his Autumn Statement the reforms promised by Boris Johnson’s government will be delayed for two years, while also announcing billions of funding to help deliver more care packages.

The Yorkshire-based chairman of the Independent Care Group, Mike Padgham, said the money fell “well short of what is needed.”

Mr Padgham, who owns a care home in Scarborough, said: “All extra funding is good, but without sounding churlish, the sums announced today fall well short of what is needed.“When he was chairman of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, Mr Hunt said the sector needed an extra £7bn a year “just to stand still”.“So when you look at the increases announced today and factor in inflation, we are well off that position.“The extra money is welcome, but will it increase staff pay to tackle the 160,000 vacancies in social care staff? No. Will it help us make inroads into the 1.6m who can’t get care? Very little, if any.”

The architect of the original plans for a social care cap said he was “astonished” over the “really distressing and deeply regrettable” decision to postpone long-awaited reforms.

Sir Andrew Dilnot said the delay “seems like a breach of promise for some of the most vulnerable people in our society”.

It comes as the Chancellor also pledged a cost-of-living payment of £900 to households on means-tested benefits and £150 for individuals on disability benefit and also plans to raise disability and working-age benefits by 10.1 per cent, in line with September inflation, in April next year.

But a leader of the York based Joseph Rowntree Foundation said the increase should come into play immediately.

Rebecca McDonald, chief economist at the Foundation, said: “It will be a huge relief to families on benefits that they are not facing what would have amounted to a historic cut.

"In taking this stand, the government has acknowledged that people cannot withstand benefits being eroded any further.

"However families are facing the worst winter many will remember and can’t wait for April – they need the help now to get through a winter of soaring costs. Even with uprating, rates are at historic lows and households facing difficult times are increasingly not able to cover the essentials.”