The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement has once again failed to tackle the national crisis in social care, the City Council’s Cabinet member for Finance says.
Councillor Mark Lowry said: “The Autumn Statement is a huge disappointment and does nothing to help address the huge cost and demand pressures in social care services that are pushing council budgets to breaking point.
“In children’s social care the numbers of children in care have been increasing nationally for well over a decade. The increasing complexity of cases and growing competition for a limited supply of placements means the cost of supporting children has also increased – at the same time as our funding from the Government has decreased.
“The pressures in adult social care also continue to increase as our population gets older and more people have complex needs.
“Sadly, this Chancellor has joined a long list of his predecessors in contributing to the growing crisis in social care by failing to provide long-term funding for local government that reflects current and future demands for services.
“While the Autumn Statement is a huge disappointment, we will continue to press the case for the Government to address this fundamental issue for our city.”
Councillor Lowry did however welcome the Chancellor’s announcement that the freeze on Local Housing Allowance (LHA) will be lifted. The LHA is the rate used to work out what you can claim in financial help from the government when renting from a private landlord. The rate has been frozen since 2020.
He added: “We have been campaigning for a long time for an increase in the LHA. Currently the rate of support is way too low to meet the cost of renting privately in Plymouth, leading more people to approach the Council as homeless or threatened with homelessness. With homelessness at a record high, unfreezing this housing benefit will be an essential lifeline to keep people in their home.
“However, I am worried that pushing this to April 2024 will leave many families facing an uncertain winter with the threat of homelessness still looming large.
“So whilst there were some positive nuggets in today’s announcement – I was hopeful for more.”