Homelessness and social care among sectors feeling forgotten after Budget

By The Press Association6th March 2024News EnglandGovernment / Politics, Housing / Homelessness, News England, Social Care

Jeremy Hunt’s Budget was branded “incredibly disappointing” by some, with the social care and homelessness sectors among those saying they had missed out.

Here is a flavour of the reaction from charities and campaigners:

Social care

A sector long said by charities and providers to be struggling, the spring Budget did nothing to quell fears for its future.

The cries of the sector have fallen on deaf ears, Care England said, adding that the Conservative government had missed a last-chance-saloon opportunity to deliver on a five-year-old promise – made by then-prime minister Boris Johnson to “fix the crisis in social care once and for all”.

“With no long-term commitment to funding the system, the situation grows increasingly perilous,” Professor Martin Green, Care England chief executive, said.

The Budget saw the confirmation of a previously-announced £500 million for councils to provide adult and children’s social care, a new pilot to improve access to data in adult social care and £45 million match funding for local authorities to build an additional 200 open children’s home placements and £120 million to fund the maintenance of the existing secure children’s home estate.

The Nuffield Trust think tank said while these measures are welcome, “the harsh reality is that thousands of people go without the care they need as the sector struggles across the board”.

The King’s Fund charity said the “omission of funding for the adult social care sector raises serious concerns amidst a bleak financial outlook for local government” and suggested there could be delays to reforms to the costs people pay for their care, which are due to come in from October 2025.

Carers

The Carers Poverty Coalition described the Budget as “incredibly disappointing” and said unpaid carers on low incomes “will be devastated to see that they have, once again, been forgotten”.

It said: “The Government must recognise the link between caring and poverty by putting robust measures in place for proper support.

“A review of carer’s allowance, the lowest benefit of its kind at only £76.75 per week, is long overdue and must be a key priority for the next government.”

Disabled people

Disability equality charity Scope said the Budget had failed to address the “immediate financial pressure disabled people are under”, with often higher energy bills and overall costs.

The organisation said: “It was the time for government to step up and support disabled people, but they don’t appear to have been listening.”

Leonard Cheshire, an organisation providing support to people with disabilities, said: “It is devastating that disabled people still have no targeted financial support.”

It said the Household Support Fund, which has been extended for six months, “must be better aimed at disabled people” and said the Government needs to move away from a “last-minute, short-term approach to the fund”.

Homeless

The word homeless does not appear in the spring Budget and the national membership organisation for frontline homelessness charities accused the Chancellor of making a “dangerous decision to ignore the real experts – our members – and their repeated calls to safeguard invaluable homelessness services”.

Homeless Link said the absence of any funding announcements for the sector was “astounding” as it followed official statistics last week showing that rough sleeping in England is up by more than a quarter and the number of children living in temporary accommodation is at a record high.

The organisation said: “Without adequate and sustainable funding to homelessness support, which provides a literal lifeline for people being pushed into homelessness, we are likely to see rough sleeping spiral further out of control, with more and more people exposed to the trauma of sleeping on our streets and at risk of deteriorating health.”