Age UK response to today's spring budget

Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK and Co- chair of the Care and Support Alliance (CSA) said:

“Not for the first time the Chancellor held out the prospect of unspecified amounts of ‘jam tomorrow’ for our beleaguered social care system, but only if a deal to leave the European Union is agreed by Parliament. Given the uncertainty over that it is difficult to be at all confident that relief is on the way any time soon. Meanwhile, with only a couple of weeks to go now until April we notice that Ministers and officials have stopped saying that the repeatedly delayed Social Care Green Paper may be published that month.

“If this endless prevarication over social care didn’t have such serious consequences for millions of older and disabled people whose needs are not being fully, or in many cases even partly met, it would be laughable. Of course, great matters of State are under discussion and in important respects the future of our country is at stake, but with each delay it is becoming harder to avoid the conclusion that the political commitment to reform and sustain social care is just not there at the moment, leaving many older and disabled people, and their families and carers, to pay an extremely heavy price.”