Government Cancels Plans For Social Care Charging Reform
The government has announced it will not proceed with adult social care charging reforms, as part of its newly published ‘public spending audit’.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced yesterday (July 29) that the adult social care charging reforms, due to be implemented in October 2025, would be cancelled, saving £1.1bn by the end of 2025-26.
The chancellor said: “Mr Speaker, adult social care was also neglected by the previous government. The sector needs reform to improve care and to support staff. In the previous parliament, the government made costly commitments to introduce adult social care charging reforms.”
“But then, they pushed them back repeatedly because they knew that local authorities were not ready and that their promises were not funded.”
“So, it will not be possible to take forward these charging reforms. This will save over £1bn by the end of next year.”
The announcement came after Wes Streeting, the new Health Secretary, said he had no plans to ditch the reforms during the election campaign
In the lead up to the announcement from the Chancellor, the County Councils Network’s recent analysis had found that costs of these reforms could top £30bn in the decade after they were introduced, and recommended they were delayed beyond their scheduled inception of October 2025.
Cllr Martin Tett, Adult Social Care Spokesperson for the County Councils Network, said:
“Councils have supported the principle of the adult social care charging reforms, but we have always said that they must be fully funded by the government of the day. The County Councils Network’s recent analysis showed that the costs of the reforms has spiralled to a projected £30bn in the decade after their introduction, with insufficient money committed to them.”
“The government has felt it is unable to take forward these reforms in the current Parliament and we understand that this will be frustrating to campaigners. But with no funding committed to the reforms and with councils still facing acute workforce and system pressures, introducing these changes in October 2025 could have had some catastrophic consequences for council finances, health and care systems and individuals who currently receive services. Now, the government must prioritise addressing these current pressures at the forthcoming Spending Review.”
Sarah Woolnough, Chief Executive of The King’s Fund, said:
‘Today, the Chancellor said that the social care system needs reform. We would go further and state that, fundamentally, the current social care system in England is not fit for purpose.
‘The sector is financially stretched, struggling with staff vacancies, and too often unable to provide enough support to the people, families and carers who rely on care services.
‘Social care reform will cost money, but the initial sums can be small, and the cost of not reforming social care is people struggling to fund, or even access, the support they need. Regrettably, after being postponed twice under previous governments, plans to introduce reforms to social care charging in 2025 have now been cancelled.
‘Following today’s decision, the government now has no plan to address the core issue in adult social care – the growing mismatch between the population’s need for support, and the availability of publicly funded care. Since 2015/16, more people in England have been requesting social care support, but fewer are receiving it. The result is that many people’s needs are going unmet.”
Vic Rayner OBE, CEO of NCF commented:
“We’re deeply disappointed the Chancellor has announced that the proposed suite of charging reforms for adult social care will no longer be taken forward. Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting said just weeks before the general election that he wanted to give the system the certainty before the election that Labour would not “come in”, “unpick” and “scrap” plans for social care reform without a feasible alternative.”
“However, we are just a few weeks into the new government’s tenure and this appears to be exactly what has borne out. This is particularly disheartening coming just a few days after the Care and Support Alliance published a startling report detailing the deeply unfair postcode lottery people requesting care and support face every day. The £1bn in savings announced is more than a number – it represents tens of thousands of people who will struggle to pay for their own care.”
The chancellor’s announcement appears to bring to an end the issue of reforming costs in adult social care devised in 2011 by an independent commission led by economist Sir Andrew Dilnot.
The reforms were put into law through the Care Act 2014, then had their implementation delayed from 2016 until 2020 and were subsequently cancelled by Theresa May’s government, in 2017, and revived by Boris Johnson’s administration in 2021 before delaying their planned start date from 2023 to 2025.
Speaking today on BBC’s radio 4 Sir Andrew said that the Labour government has “failed another generation of families” I think it’s a tragedy.”
“It’s another example of social care, something that affects people at some of the most difficult times of their lives, being given too little attention, being ignored, and being tossed aside and its very, very disappointing.”
