Responding to the 2017
Budget, Emily Holzhausen OBE, Policy Director at Carers
UK said:
“It is a welcome sign that the Chancellor has recognised
the current critical pressure that social care is under, by
allocating another £1 billion to social care in the next
financial year and a further £1 billion over the following 2
years. Social care services
are vital to families who have been under increasing pressure to
care for their disabled and older
relatives. This has
significant costs and consequences for carers, their families and
the
economy. Carers
UK’s research shows around 2 million people have given up work to
care for relatives. For one
in three carers providing substantial care, their decision to
give up work was due to a lack of affordable quality social
care.
Without this new funding, we feared that many more carers
would have found themselves giving up work to care, many would
have seen their health worsen, their relationships break down as
they have less time for others, and families would end up in
lasting poverty.
This welcome funding announcement is by no
means the end to the continuing problem of
inadequate social care funding.
We are pleased that the
Government will be bringing out a Green Paper on the future of
social care looking at medium and longer term funding for social
care services. The
Government must develop, secure and implement a robust and
sustainable funding solution for care which provides a fairer
deal for families. With an ageing population, this must be done
in a timely way, or social care will continue to remain in
crisis.”
However, there was nothing in the Budget to ease financial
pressures on carers and no reversal of planned cuts to Employment
and Support Allowance, which mean those in the work-related
activity group stand to lose £30 a week.
We were also hoping to see several other measures in the
2017 Budget that would support carers to improve their health and
well-being, increase their opportunities to learn and to
recognise their skills, and enhance their ability to juggle work
and continue caring. The
forthcoming cross-Government Carers Strategy due to be published
in Spring is an opportunity
the Government must take to improve the lives of carers.”
