Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
Over three million families will lose an average of £1,720 per year in real terms by 2029-30, as a result of proposed changes to disability and incapacity benefits, the government has estimated.

This includes 370,000 people who will lose their current entitlement to the daily living allowance element of personal independence payment (PIP), said the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), in an impact assessment published today.

A further 430,000 future claimants, who would have been entitled to the daily living component of PIP under the current rules, would not be found eligible, under the reformed system set out in last week’s welfare reform green paper.

£4,500 average annual cut to PIP

On average, the two groups would lose out on £4,500 a year on average without PIP, which is designed to compensate people of working-age for the additional costs of disability.

To restrict eligibility, the DWP plans to bar people from receiving the daily living component if they do not score at least four points on any one of the 10 assessed activities, a policy that would apply to new applicants from 2026-27 and existing claimants, at the point of review.

To be eligible for the daily living component of PIP, you must score at least eight points across all 10 activities, which include preparing food, washing and bathing, dressing and undressing and communicating verbally.

Carers face benefit cuts too

The tightening of eligibility will also affect unpaid carers, as PIP is one of a set of disability benefits that a person has to claim in order for their carer to be able to obtain carer’s allowance or the carer element of universal credit (UC). The DWP said 150,000 would not receive one of these benefits as a result of its changes to PIP.

The department also set out the impact of its proposed measures to reduce the value of incapacity benefits.

This includes freezing the health element of universal credit at £97 per week until 2029-30 for existing claimants and halving the rate to £50 per week for new claimants, from 2026-27. In today’s spring statement, the government said that the £50 per week rate for new claimants would also be frozen until 2029-30.

Losses from incapacity benefit reductions

In its impact assessment, published alongside the spring statement, the DWP said 2.25m current recipients of the health element of UC would lose £500 per year as a result of the freeze in the rate.

A further 730,000 future recipients of the UC health element would lose out on an average of £3,000 per year due to the halving of the rate for new claimants.

However, the department added that 370,000 people would now be eligible for the UC health element, gaining £2,600 per year, as a result of its decision not to go ahead with the previous government’s plan to tighten the work capability assessment, which determines eligibility.

Losses outweigh gains from policy

Overall, it said 3.8m families would benefit from its reforms, including through its plans to increase the standard allowance of UC by more than inflation from 2026-27.

However, the projected gain for these families – £420 a year in real terms by 2029-30 – is considerably less than the £1,720 that the 3.2m families who will lose out are set to see their incomes reduced by.

Also, while just under half of the families due to benefit have a disabled person in their household, 96% of those set to lose out do, with the latter group accounting for an estimated 20% of all households with a disabled member.

Quarter of a million more in poverty

Based on its estimates, it calculated an extra 250,000 people – including 50,000 children – would be in relative poverty after taking account of housing costs in 2029-30 as a result of the measures.

It stressed that the assessment did not take account of the potential impact of its plan to increase spending on employment support for disabled people by £1bn a year by 2029-30.

It also did not take into account government plans to pay an additional premium on the health element of UC for those with severe, life-long health conditions, who would never be expected to work.

Rationale for benefits cuts

The government’s justifications for the cuts are to address the significant increases in the numbers claiming disability and incapacity benefits since 2019 – along with the resulting costs – and get more disabled people into work.

According to think-tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), spending in Great Britain on these benefits grew from £36bn to £48bn in real-terms from 2019-20 to 2023-24 and are projected to hit £63bn in 2028-29 (in 2024-25 prices).

On the back of its proposed changes, spending on both disability and incapacity benefits will rise, but more slowly. By 2029-30, spending on PIP and disability living allowance (DLA) for working-age adults would reach £31bn, compared with £34.5bn without the reforms, said the DWP.

Measures ‘will make people more ill and less able to work’

However, charities and campaign groups renewed their severe criticisms of the measures in response to the impact assessment.

“Restricting eligibility for PIP and freezing the health element of universal credit will do nothing to help people get into work,” said Centre for Mental Health chief executive Andy Bell.

“They are more likely to make people more ill, more isolated, and less able to work. For many people living with long-term mental health problems, PIP is what enables them to carry on working.”

“MPs need to consider the consequences of plunging their disabled constituents into poverty, with little prospect of plans on employment support meaningfully mitigating this disastrous situation,” said Mencap chief executive Jon Sparkes.

Carers ‘deserve so much more’

In relation to the impact on carers, Carers UK cited research that found that 9% of carers – about 400,000 people across the UK – were in “deep poverty”, meaning their level of resources placed them 50% below the poverty line. This compared with 6% of the non-carer population.

Chief executive Helen Walker said many more carers were now in danger of further financial hardship and poverty, adding: “They deserve so much more. The repercussions of today’s changes will be felt deeply by those who for too long, have been our last line of defence – providing vital support which simply can’t be found elsewhere.”

The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) also joined the criticism, dubbing the cuts “unacceptable”.

“Any moves to balance the books must not damage living standards or make our communities and public services poorer,” said chief executive Ruth Allen. “This will add to demand for adult and children’s social work and other care services, as well as stretching community and charitable support systems.”

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
Many disabled people are facing benefit cuts in a government plan to save over £5bn a year by 2029-30 and get more people with health conditions into work, announced yesterday.

Access to personal independence payment (PIP) – the main disability benefit for people of working-age – would be restricted, while incapacity benefit rates for those out of work would be frozen for existing claimants and halved for new recipients.

At the same time, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) would invest an extra £1bn a year in employment support by 2029-30 in order to help get more disabled people into work.

Disabled people would also get a new right to try work without immediately losing access to benefits, while those whose lifelong conditions mean they will never be able to work would be given a benefits premium and spared reassessments.

‘Helping people who can work to do so’

Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, who launched the Pathways to Work green paper in a statement to Parliament, said the proposals were about “helping people who can work to do so, protecting those most in need, and delivering respect and dignity for all”.

The DWP will not publish an impact assessment of the reforms until next week, so it is not known as yet how many people will have their benefits cuts. However, charities warned the proposals would drive many disabled people into deeper poverty.

Scope said the changes would be “catastrophic for disabled people’s living standards”, while the Centre for Mental Health warned that they would worsen mental health, a concern also raised by NHS leaders.

Rising benefits caseload and cost

The green paper is the government’s response to the significant increase in the number of working-age people claiming disability benefits (mainly PIP) or incapacity benefits (employment and support allowance or the health element of universal credit) in the wake of the pandemic, and the ensuing rise in costs.

According to think-tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), spending in Great Britain on these benefits grew from £36bn to £48bn in real-terms from 2019-20 to 2023-24 and are projected to hit £63bn in 2028-29 (in 2024-25 prices).

Annual spending on disability benefits grew by 45% in real-terms, and the number of recipients by 39%, while the inflation-adjusted cost of incapacity benefit grew by 26% and the caseload by 28%, from 2019-20 to 2023-24.

Greater levels of disability in population

The government has admitted that this has been, in part, caused by rising levels of disability, with 36% of people of working-age now having a long-term health condition, up from 29% a decade ago.

However, it said that this was being outstripped by the rise in the number of successful claims for disability or incapacity benefits. According to DWP figures, the number of disabled working-age people in England and Wales increased by 17%, but the numbers receiving an incapacity or disability benefit increased by double that amount (34%), from 2019-20 to 2023-24.

The DWP said this meant that the “structure of the benefits system” was partly responsible for the rise in cases.

In particular, the green paper said there was a “perverse” incentive within the incapacity benefits system for people to be found to have “limited capability for work and work-related activity” through the work capability assessment (WCA).

As a result, they are put on the health element of universal credit (UC) and receive £97 per week, in addition to the standard universal credit allowance, which is worth £91 per week for single people aged over 25. The difference in what they receive and what is given to those just on the standard allowance has grown over time due to a freeze in the standard allowance from 2015-19.

Changes to out-of-work benefits for disabled people

To address this issue, the DWP said it would:

• Scrap the WCA, meaning people would no longer be assessed on how far their disabilities or health conditions limited their ability to work. In future, the health element of UC would only be available to people assessed as eligible for the daily living component of PIP (see below). This is expected to come into force in 2028-29.
• Freeze the health element of UC at £97 per week until 2029-30 for existing claimants and halve the rate to £50 per week for new claimants, from 2026-27. In the spring statement on 26 March 2025, the government said that the £50 per week rate for new claimants would also be frozen until 2029-30.
• Increase the standard allowance of UC – for new and existing claimants – from £91 to £98 per week, from 2026-27. Combined with the cuts to the health element, this would significantly narrow the gap between payments to people without health conditions who only receive the standard allowance and those with a condition who receive both the standard allowance and health element.
• Consult on raising the minimum age for the UC health element from 18 to 22, with the savings reinvested in work support for young people. This would be to “remove any potential
  disincentive to work” and support the government’s “youth guarantee”, to give those aged 18-21 access to education, training or help to find a job.
• Enhance investment in employment support for people who are out of work who have a work-limiting health condition or disability, with an extra £1bn a year provided by 2029-30.

To protect those with the highest needs, the DWP said it would pay an additional premium on the health element of UC for those with severe, life-long health conditions, who have no prospect of improvement and will never be able to work, and ensure that they would not have to have to be reassessed.

Restricting access to PIP

Despite the government’s emphasis on getting more disabled people into work, one of the biggest measures in the green paper is restricting access to PIP, which is designed to compensate people for the costs of disability and is paid regardless of work status.

The DWP said spending on PIP was “becoming unaffordable” and needed to be focused on those with higher needs.

To restrict eligibility, it plans to bar people from receiving the daily living component if they do not score at least four points on any one of the 10 assessed activities, a policy that would apply to new applicants from 2026-27 and existing claimants, at the point of review. To be eligible for the daily living component of PIP, you must score at least eight points across all 10 activities.

Under the plans, you would not be eligible if you needed assistance to wash your hair or wash below your waist (two points) or needed assistance getting in or out of the shower (three points), under the washing and bathing activity, unless you scored four points or more in one of the other activities.

The DWP said it was “mindful of the impact this change could have on people” and so would consult on offering a review of disabled people’s health and eligible social care needs should they lose access to PIP.

Loss of benefit

The IFS said the impact of the reforms to PIP was uncertain because the consequences of changes to eligibility criteria were hard to predict. However, it added that:

• People who received the health element of UC but were not eligible for PIP would lose access to the health element through entitlement being based on the PIP assessment. This would make them worse off by £2,400 a year (in today’s prices), from 2028-29. Currently, 600,000 people qualify for the health element of UC but do not receive PIP.
• About 2.4m families would be worse off by £280 a year by 2029-30 due to the freeze in the health element of UC.
• New claimants for the health element of UC would be worse off by £2,500 a year than were the green paper changes not introduced.

The proposals sparked widespread anger from disability and anti-poverty charities.

Government ‘choosing to penalise some of society’s poorest’

With almost half of families in poverty having at least one disabled person, Scope said the government was “choosing to penalise some of the poorest people in our society”.

While welcoming the increased investment in employment support, the charity’s executive director of strategy, James Taylor, said this would be undermined by the benefits cuts.

“These cuts will be a catastrophe for disabled peoples’ living standards and independence,” he added. “The government will be picking up the pieces in other parts of the system with pressure on an already overwhelmed NHS and social care, as more disabled people are pushed into poverty.”

Impact on carers and child poverty

The End Child Poverty Coalition and Child Poverty Action Group warned that the measures risked deepening child poverty – which the government is developing a strategy to tackle – while the Carers Trust and Carers UK flagged up the impact of the proposals on carers.

Access to carer’s allowance is dependent on the person caring for someone who receives one of a set of disability benefits, and Carers UK said half of awards are tied to the person being cared for receiving PIP. It also pointed to the fact that disability rates are higher among carers than in the general population, with about 150,000 people receiving both PIP and carer’s allowance.

“1.2 million unpaid carers in the UK are living in poverty, (with 400,000 in deep poverty),” said its chief executive, Helen Walker. “Raising the qualifying threshold for support could mean even more carers will struggle to afford essentials like food and heating.”

Risk of deterioration in mental health

The Centre for Mental Health, meanwhile, warned of an adverse impact of the policy changes on people’s mental health.

While welcoming the planned increase in employment support funding, chief executive Andy Bell said: “Evidence shows that when governments tighten benefit rules, people’s mental health gets worse. If more people fall into poverty, both the prevalence and severity of mental ill health is likely to rise.”

This issue was also picked up by health trust representative body NHS Providers, which warned that the proposals risked increasing pressures on mental health services.

“Mental health trust leaders previously told us that changes to universal credit and benefits were increasing demand for services, as were loneliness, homelessness and wider deprivation,” said its interim chief executive, Saffron Cordery.”

“With poor mental health the leading driver of ill-health related economic inactivity, they will also be worried that today’s announcement could lead to worse mental and physical health for patients and shift further costs and pressures onto the health and care system, including overstretched emergency departments and mental health services.”

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has set out lessons from the first tranche of assessments of local authority adults’ services since it resumed performance checks in December 2023.

It said that support for carers was in need of improvement, while authorities also needed to enhance their understanding of population equality and diversity issues and use of data, though reablement was an area of strength.

CQC deputy directors Amanda Stride and Lella Andrews made the comments in a presentation to a Local Government Association webinar on its assessment system for councils in England.

Need to improve support for carers

Stride and Andrews said support for unpaid carers was an area of improvement identified by the CQC’s assessments to date.

This included improving the identification of carers, the range and capacity of services for them, the timeliness of assessments and the personalisation of support, based on the age and needs of the person being cared for.

The conclusion reflects the results of a recent Carers UK survey, which found that over half of carers felt they required more recognition of their needs from councils, with some reporting long waits for assessments or support.

The CQC officials also pointed to understanding of population equality and diversity issues as an area for improvement, and said councils’ inconsistent use of data made it harder for them to effectively plan and monitor services.

Challenges with recruitment and transitions

Transitions for young people to adults’ services were often challenging, especially if they did not start early, while councils faced ongoing recruitment pressures, particularly in relation to occupational therapists.

However, reablement was an area of strength, with the CQC having seen good practice in its use to support people to regain independence, said Stride and Andrews.

They added that, while the CQC’s assessment methodology would not change, it was working with sector bodies to make improvements, including in how it gathers evidence of lived experience and collects provider views.

Councils ‘want to work with the CQC to improve process’

In response to the findings, the chair of the LGA’s community wellbeing board, David Fothergill, said: “Councils are keen to learn and improve services. Identifying common themes is essential not only for addressing challenges but also for sharing what works well.

“We want to work with the CQC to ensure the assurance process is productive and valuable, helping councils build on strengths as well as tackle areas for improvement.”

He pointed to the LGA’s work, with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), through the Partners in Care and Health sector-led improvement initiative, which “plays a key role in supporting the sector to continually drive progress”.

Partners in Care and Health has published guidance for councils on learning from CQC assessments carried out to date, including reflections on the process from adults’ services directors in authorities that have been assessed and an analysis of what it takes to get a good rating, based on the first set of reports.

Over half of carers say they require more recognition of their needs from councils, amid worsening mental health and high levels of overwhelm, driven by a lack of breaks.

Those were among findings published last week by Carers UK, taken from the charity’s latest State of Caring survey. This was carried out last summer, with responses from 12,500 people, 92% of whom were still in a caring role, with the rest former carers.

Most carers ‘overwhelmed’

Over a third (35%) of carers said they were in bad or very bad mental health, compared with 27% in the charity’s 2023 survey, while 57% said they were often or always overwhelmed.

Of those who felt overwhelmed, two-thirds (65%) attributed this to a lack of breaks; overall, 49% of survey respondents said they needed more time off from their caring role.

Fifty five per cent of respondents said they needed more recognition of their needs from their local authority, up from 46% in the 2023 survey.

Under the Care Act 2014, councils must assess carers who may have support needs, currently or in the future, and meet the needs of those who meet the eligibility threshold through a support plan that should be reviewed very 12 months. Similar rights exist in Wales under the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014.

Long waits and lack of support following assessments

Carers UK’s found that 23% of carers had had an assessment in the previous 12 months, though only 41% had sought help from adult social services for their caring role.

Of those who had sought help, 57% said they had experienced long waits for assessments or support.

Of those who had received an assessment, 42% said they had not been supported by their council subsequently, with 31% saying they had been supported and 28% not sure.

Among the group who said they had not received support, almost half (47%) said their assessment had identified support needs, but it had not been provided

Carers surveyed reported issues such as being given a direct payment or a voucher for a sitting service, but not being able to find care workers to deliver these services.

Several said that, contrary to their expectations, they had been signposted to other services rather than offered practical support directly by their council.

Carers UK said this chimed with the national picture in England. It NHS England data for 2023-24 showing that, of 360,815 carers provided with support, or assessed, by councils, 55% were only given information or advice and 15% not directly supported at all.

‘All councils must fulfil Care Act duties’

Carers UK chief executive Helen Walker said: “An increasing demand for social care services, together with a lack of funding for social care means that, all too often, replacement care and respite services are not available when carers need them.

“Far too many carers are not receiving adequate support, resulting in poor mental health and burnout. We need to see a clear plan for long-term, sustainable funding ensuring that all local authorities can fulfil their duties to carers under the Care Act 2014 and all carers can access high-quality social care when they need it.”

The charity also called for the government to urgently invest an extra £1.5bn in breaks and respite care services in England, with equivalent resources for the devolved nations, backed by legislation giving carers a statutory right to regular and meaningful breaks.

It also urged that the government ensure that “robust cross-government support for unpaid carers” was part of the terms of reference of the Casey Commission, set up to develop plans for the long-term reform of social care in England.

Better support for carers ‘should be part of funding solution for social care’

In response to the report, the Local Government Association (LGA) linked the problems it revealed to the need for improved resource for adult social care.

Cllr David Fothergill, Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board said:  “Councils recognise the enormous contribution of unpaid carers who provide vital support for thousands of people every day,” said David Fothergill, chair of the LGA’s community wellbeing board.

“Helping councils to better support unpaid carers should be a crucial part of a long-term and sustainable funding solution for social care.”

Councils will receive £22.6m in delayed adult social care innovation funding next week, the government has confirmed.

It confirmed today that the second tranche of the accelerating reform fund (ARF) would be paid out, following concerns from charity the Carers Trust that the money risked disappearing.

The ARF was set up by the previous Conservative government to support the adoption and scaling up of innovative practice in adult social care, in order to boost choice and control and the quality and accessibility of services.

It provided £20m in March to consortia of local authorities for each of the 42 NHS integrated care board areas. They have used this to fund 123 projects, 70% of which have an element that supports unpaid carers, including using digital tools to improving identification, assessment and support.

The second tranche was due in August, said the Carers Trust, and in October, the charity reported that there was no indication of when or if it would be paid by the incoming Labour government.

Announcing the funding today, care minister Stephen Kinnock said: “This funding will allow local authorities to harness the full potential of technology to give carers more flexibility and help with these crucial roles.”

More people are receiving adult social care in England following years of decline, official data shows.

Councils funded long-term care packages for 858,720 people during 2023-24, up 2.8% on the year before, which in turn followed a 2.1% rise in 2022-23, according to NHS England’s annual adult social care activity and finance report.

This took the number receiving care back up to levels last seen in 2017-18 and follows a 6.3% fall in recipients, from 872,520 to 817,915, between in 2015-16 and 2021-22.

As of 31 March 2024, 650,085 people were receiving long-term care, up from a low of 613,510 in March 2022 and the highest year-end total since 2017.

Alongside this, councils boosted the number of short-term care packages they delivered to maximise people’s independence, often known as reablement services. The number of these grew by 12.2% last year, from 251,255 to 281,850.

The increases in provision came on the back of a 4.2% increase in the number of requests for care, from 2,002,055 in 2022-23 to 2,085,720 to 2023-24.

Unmet need concerns

The decline in the numbers receiving long-term care from 2015-16 to 2021-22 came despite a 9.3% rise in the number of annual requests for care during that time, leading to significant concerns about unmet need having increased and councils rationing care in response to financial pressures.

While councils increased real-terms spending year-on-year during this time, these increases were not substantial, while think-tank the King’s Fund has pointed out that much of this was absorbed by Covid-related pressures or increases in the unit costs of services.

The NHS England report showed that real-terms funding grew much more quickly in 2023-24 (7.5%) than in previous years, with gross expenditure increasing by £3.4bn, in cash terms, to £27.1bn. This was driven by funding on long-term care, which grew by £3bn between 2022-23 and 2023-24, to £21.4bn.

As well as providing more people with care, the increased spending also went into significant rises in provider fees.

The average weekly fee paid to care home providers rose by 11.6% in cash terms, from £992.80 in 2022-23 to £1,108.40 in 2023-24. This was likely driven by high rates of inflation and a 9.7% rise in the national living wage in April 2023.

Injection of government cash

The increased spending in 2023-24 came on the back of the then government making significantly more resource available to councils in 2023-24, including by diverting funds earmarked for the overhaul of the adult social care charging system. This included:

• A £1.36bn real-terms boost to the social care grant, which can be used on both adults’ and children’s services.
• A £475m rise in the market sustainability and fair cost of care fund, designed to help councils increase fees to adult social care providers, cut waiting lists for services and tackle recruitment and retention issues.
• £307m through a new adult social care discharge fund, designed to help speed up hospital discharges.
• Permitting authorities to increase the adult social care council tax precept – whose proceeds are ring-fenced for the sector – by 2% in 2023-24, up from 1% in 2022-23.
• Allowing councils to raise general levels of council tax by 3% without the need for a local referendum, up from 2% the year before.

Highest overspend in a decade and Budget concerns

However, despite their increased funding, councils overspent their budgets by £586m, the highest level in a decade, in 2023-24, according to the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services’ spring survey, carried out earlier this year.

And while councils have budgeted to increase adult social care spending by a further 9.1% in 2024-25 – on the back of another government funding boost – ADASS found that authorities were having to make £903m in savings this year, the highest annual level since 2016-17.

There are also huge concerns across the sector about the impact of last week’s Budget on funding levels for 2025-26. The government said councils’ overall resource would increase by about 3.2% next year, with an extra £600m earmarked for social care, a fund that is expected to be available for adults’ and children’s services.

However, adult sector leaders have warned that the £600m will be entirely swallowed up by the increased costs for adult social care providers of delivering a 6.7% rise in the national living wage – which will benefit many thousands of care workers – and an increase in employers’ national insurance contributions.

Improvement in timeliness of reviews

Alongside the growing number of people receiving care, councils also improved the timeliness of reviews of care and support plans in 2023-24, which are expected to take place every 12 months.

Of people who had been receiving long-term care for more than a year, 58.8% received a review during 2023-24, up from 57.1% in 2022-23.

This follows significant concerns about councils running long waiting lists for assessments, reviews and care packages in recent years.

But less funding for carer support

However, there was little improvement in provision for carers, with a 1.3% increase in the number receiving a service in 2023-24, from 356,235 to 360,815, which followed an 8.4% fall in numbers supported over the two preceding years.

Funding for carer support fell, meanwhile, from £195m in 2022-23 to £183m in 2023-24.

“These alarming figures show state funded support for carers in England has nosedived in recent years,” said charity the Carers Trust’s director of policy and public affairs, Dominic Carter.

“This is a travesty at a time when carers are taking on ever more responsibility and facing burnout as they prop up a health and social care system that’s been starved of funding.”

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
Social care services will receive an extra £600m at least in government grant funding next year, chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in today’s Budget.

The package was part of a settlement for local authorities in England that will see their available budgets rise by an estimated 3.2% in real terms in 2025-26, compared with this year.

The government also pledged over £250m to test new ways of working in children’s social care next year, including the pre-announced £44m to trial allowances for kinship carers and roll out regional hubs to support the recruitment of foster carers.

Children’s social care reform

This will pave the way for further reforms to children’s social care, which the Treasury said would include “promoting early intervention to help children to stay with their families where possible and fixing the broken care market”.

This is a similar agenda to that set out by the Conservatives in last year’s Stable Homes, Built on Love strategy, which Labour is, largely, continuing to implement.

These are likely to be announced next spring, when the government unveils detailed public spending plans for the period from 2026-27 to 2028-29 in its spending review.

The Budget also included £90m to renovate and build children’s homes.

£600m for social care

The at least £600m in additional social care resource is part of a planned £1.3bn in extra grant funding for councils in 2025-26.

It is not clear as yet whether the money will be directed at adults’ services, children’s services or both and, if the latter, how prescriptive the government will be in how councils spend the money.

The existing social care grant – worth just over £5bn in 2024-25 – enables authorities to spend money as they wish on adults’ or children’s services.

The extra £600m is worth about 1.5% of the £38.6bn councils have budgeted to spend on adults’ and children’s social care in 2024-25.

No detail on council tax plans

Authorities are likely to have access to more cash than this to fund the services, notably through council tax and the adult social care precept, which is ring-fenced for the service.

However, the Budget did not include details of government rules on how much authorities can raise council tax and the precept by in 2025-26. These will be announced in the draft local government finance settlement, due later in the year.

The government has also set aside about £5bn a year to compensate public sector employers, such as councils, for the impact of the rise in employers’ national insurance contributions that comes into force next April.

Under this, the biggest tax-raising measure announced by Reeves today, the rate employers pay will rise from 13.8% to 15% and the threshold of employee earnings at which they start paying the tax will decrease from £9,100 to £5,000 a year.

Funding for housing adaptations and homelessness services

Alongside the social care funding, authorities will also receive an extra £86m in disabled facilities grant (DFG), which the Treasury said would fund an extra 7,800 adaptations to the homes of disabled people. The DFG is worth £625m this year.

Additionally, councils will receive an extra £233m in homelessness funding to prevent increases in rough sleeping and the number of families in temporary accommodation.

Separately to the £1.3bn boost in grant funding to councils, authorities will receive an extra £1bn in special educational needs and disability (SEND) and alternative educational provision funding, one of the biggest pressures on local authority budgets.

The Treasury said this was “an important step towards realising the government’s vision to reform England’s SEND provision to improve outcomes and return the system to financial sustainability”.

Boosts to national living wage and carer’s allowance take-up

As also pre-announced, Reeves confirmed that the national living wage would rise by 6.7% in April 2025, to £12.21 per hour, benefiting many thousands of care workers.

In addition, unpaid carers will be able to earn more before losing their entitlement to carer’s allowance, with the earnings limit increasing from £151 to £196 per week from April 2025. According to the Treasury, this will help an extra 60,000 carers claim the benefit – currently worth £81.90 a week – by 2030.

The government also provided an extra £1bn to councils to extend the household support fund and discretionary housing payments in 2025-26. The former, which is worth £842m in 2024-25, is designed to help vulnerable households meet the costs of essentials, while discretionary housing payments help people receiving benefits with housing costs.

Coming spending squeeze

However, despite the chancellor announcing tax rises today that are due to provide an extra £42bn in revenue by 2029-30, day-to-day spending is set to be squeezed after next year.

It is due to rise by an average of 1.3% a year in real terms from 2026-2030, compared with 4.8% in 2024-25 and 3.1% in 2025-26.

The government will commission an independent review of overpayments of carer’s allowance, work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall said today.

The review will be led by disability rights campaigner Liz Sayce and will examine how overpayments have occurred, how affected carers can be supported and how to reduce the risk of them happening again.

Carer’s allowance is worth £81.90 per week and is paid to people aged over 16 who cares for someone who claims a qualifying benefit – such as disability living allowance, personal independence payment or attendance allowance – for at least 35 hours a week.

However, claimants may earn no more than £151 per week after tax, national insurance and expenses and, should they breach this limit, they must repay all of their carer’s allowance for the weeks in question.

Carers’ £251m debt to DWP

As of November 2023, over 991,000 people received carer’s allowance. As of May this year, 134,800 claimants were in debt to the DWP due to overpayments with a total value of £251m, the then Conservative government revealed in the same month.

This followed an investigation this year by the Guardian that highlighted the hardships faced by carers being forced to repay significant sums by the Department for Work and Pensions after inadvertently going over the allowance earnings limit.

A subsequent report by Carer’s UK on the experience of 138 affected carers found they had had overpayments averaging £4,000, which had taken years to repay, “causing them financial difficulties and having a serious impact on their mental health and wellbeing”.

Carers ‘pushed to breaking point’

“Many unpaid carers have been pushed to breaking point looking after the people they love,” Kendall said today, in a written ministerial statement. “It is essential that we provide eligible carers with the support they need at the time they need it.

“The review will investigate how overpayments of carer’s allowance have occurred, what can best be done to support those who have accrued them, and how to reduce the risk of these problems occurring in future.”

Carer’s UK said overpayments were “having a devastating effect for many carers, causing additional stress and anxiety when many are already under huge pressure” and that it was “positive to see the government taking steps to tackle this scandal”.

“This review needs to tackle the root causes of overpayments to ensure these are prevented for as many carers as possible,” said the charity’s chief executive, Helen Walker.

Charity urges wider review of benefit

However, she said that the design of the benefit also needed reform, adding: “The low earnings limit for carer’s allowance, combined with a harsh ‘cliff’ edge’ for those who go over the limit by just a few pence is hurting employment opportunities – holding some carers back from working as much as they would like to and pushing others out of employment altogether.”

Sayce was chief executive of Disability Rights UK and its predecessor charity Radar from 2007-17 and was interim chair of the Social Security Advisory Committee, which advises the government on the welfare system, from 2019-20.

Her review will cover England and Wales, as carer’s allowance is a devolved matter in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

A £22.6m government payment for innovative adult social care projects in England is almost two months overdue and is “in danger of disappearing”, a carers’ charity has warned.

The second tranche of the accelerating reform fund (ARF) was due to be paid to local authorities in August, enabling them to continue financing 122 projects to improve support for carers, enhance choice and control for people receiving care and boost training, among other things.

The fund was launched by the previous government and the first tranche – worth £20m – was paid by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in March 2024.

No confirmation on funding

The Carers Trust said the £22.6m had not yet been paid, and that neither councils nor its network of local carer organisations had had any indication from the DHSC when – or even if – it would be.

The charity pointed to the fact that the funding was not referenced by care minister Stephen Kinnock among government initiatives to support unpaid carers, in a parliamentary debate on the group last month

Also, since taking power, the Labour government has made significant cuts to adult social care funding planned by its predecessor, in order to tackle what it has described as a £22bn “black hole” in the public finances left by its predecessor 2024-25.

Adult social care cuts already made

This has involved cancelling the planned reform to the charging system, including an £86,000 cap on personal care costs, and cutting £115m in earmarked funding for adult social care training.

The latter included cutting the second round of a scheme to fund adult social work apprenticeships.

The Carers Trust’s policy and practice manager, Andy McGowan, said: “The government urgently needs to honour its commitments to them and provide the rest of this funding. At a minimum, that needs to happen at the Budget later this month.”

The Budget will take place on 30 October, when chancellor Rachel Reeves is due to set out government funding plans for 2025-26 as well as further in-year cuts to public spending in 2024-25. This may include scrapping the second tranche of the ARF.

‘Crucial projects could be scrapped’

“Without this money, more than 100 crucial projects could be scrapped,” McGowan added. “The timing would be catastrophic, coming just as we enter the winter months when pressure on social care and carers is so acute.”

Community Care asked the DHSC whether it could confirm whether the ARF funding would be paid.

In response, a DHSC spokesperson said: “We are committed to tackling the significant challenges facing social care, and we will work closely with the sector and across government on our plans for effective reform.

“As part of this, we are committed to making sure unpaid carers are better able to look after their own health and wellbeing, and not just the health and wellbeing of those they care for.”

Over the last decade, national carer organisations have increasingly recognised the particular nature of caring for someone as they approach the end of life, and some specific support has been created, for example, the End of Life Carers Project run by Carers Network.

This has encouraged local carer organisations to recognise carers of those approaching the end of life as being in need of specifically developed, targeted services.

Many of the challenges faced by carers are the same whatever the stage of an illness or disability, but at end of life their urgency and significance are magnified.

Communicating with carers as needs increase

Carers’ needs can change as the cared-for person’s condition progresses, and practitioners should encourage open discussion between all involved. Sometimes the needs of carers conflict with the needs of the person nearing the end of life, so practitioners will require skills in facilitating difficult conversations.

End-of-life carers may want information about their loved one’s prognosis and symptoms, and what to expect as death approaches.

Equally, they may find the only way to cope is to ignore the inevitable. This can be difficult if they are required to have discussions about advance care planning, such as resuscitation, artificial feeding or active treatment coming to an end.

This is especially pertinent if the person they care for lacks capacity to make relevant decisions for themselves or the carer has lasting power of attorney for health and welfare.

The person nearing end of life may want help to organise their will, plan their funeral or discuss arrangements for dependent children.

Again, this can work well if the carer is in the same place emotionally, but it can be painful for both if they are not. If the cared-for person and carer are parents, and the carer wants to make forward plans or prepare the children, it can be very difficult to talk to their children about what is happening if this goes against the other parent’s wishes.

Practitioners will have to think how best to communicate with the carer about matters such as options for a preferred place of care and of death. Should it be at home, in a hospice or in hospital? What are the practicalities in each case? These are not always easy questions to ask or answer.

Tips for communicating with carers as the person nears end of life

• Enable a conversation about end-of-life concerns, both between yourself and the carer, and between the carer and their loved one. Practitioners may worry about offending or upsetting the carer (or the cared-for person), but the worst thing is to say nothing.
• A good place to start can be to ask more general questions about difficult conversations. For example: “In your family, how do people begin difficult conversations?”; “In your household, if someone wants to talk about a sensitive subject who is usually the person to initiate that?”
• We have come across many families/couples who want to talk about difficult or painful matters but wait for a time when it will feel easier. In our experience, the time for it to feel easier never comes. Practitioners should gently probe the possibilities here, perhaps suggesting that planning for dying can be done in the same way as we plan for other unwanted events, like an accident or a burglary. We make an insurance plan and then put it on the shelf to be brought out as and when.
• You may encourage carers to reflect on the personal cost of ignoring the inevitable. You can ask: “If you didn’t have to worry about upsetting them, is there anything you would like to talk about with them?” And if they tell you, you can answer: “What do you think would happen if you were unable to have that conversation with them?”
• The only exception to the rule of persevering with discussions along these lines is if there are reasons to suspect that the carer is abusing the dying person, in which case local authority safeguarding procedures should be followed.

Professionals need skills in initiating and engaging in conversations that are often avoided because they are so difficult. By modelling these conversations, we can encourage individuals and communities to be less frightened of death and more ready to become involved in end-of-life care.

Useful resources to share with carers in end-of-life situations

• Hospice UK’s information and support resources and advice from its Dying Matters campaign.
• Carers UK’s helpline, 0808 808 7777, which is available, Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm.
• Healthtalk.org’s section on caring for someone with a terminal illness.

The guide also covers applying the law on assessment, support planning and review to support carers at this difficult time. Inform Adults subscribers can access the full guide here.

What to read next

• Tips for keeping assessment processes strengths-focused
• How to communicate with people who are deafblind
• Tips for coping with difficult conversations