AGE UK RESPONSE TO TODAY'S BUDGET

Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director of Age UK and Co-Chair of the Care and Support Alliance said:

"Today, social care needed a big injection of guaranteed, additional funding for now and the future, but the Chancellor didn't deliver it. The extra money that was announced for local government was not ring-fenced for social care and will need to be stretched thinly across council services, after a decade of under-funding."

"The end result is that there is no relief in sight for older and disabled people who require care, and their families and carers, who are having to put up with services under extreme duress - if they can get any help at all."

"It's no good the Government promising the possibility of more funding for care in a few years' time if today's provision continues to disintegrate and more workers walk away.

"If the Prime Minister's ambition to 'fix social care' is ever to be realised Rishi Sunak has to play his part by providing enough funding to make it happen. He hasn't done so and therefore unfortunately, the future of social care remains as uncertain as ever, with the credibility of the Prime Minister's promise increasingly on the line."