RAISING THE WEEKLY MAXIMUM CHARGE FOR ADULT NON-RESIDENTIAL CARE AND SUPPORT
The Older People’s Commissioner for Wales (OPCW) welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Welsh Government’s consultation on raising the weekly maximum charge for adult non-residential care and support.
The Commissioner recognises the increasing financial pressures on local authorities but does not support the proposed increase in the weekly maximum charge for adult non-residential care and support.
Weekly maximum charge
The consultation document states that only individuals who have the financial means to pay an increased maximum weekly charge would do so, and that this would be determined by the usual financial means test carried out by an individual’s local authority. The draft Integrated Impact Assessment accompanying the consultation document recognises the impact of inflation on the costs of daily living and sets out the Commissioner’s own key statistics on relative income poverty and older people.
The Commissioner understands that the minimum income amount which older people retain under the charging formula increases automatically in line with increases in Pension Credit and other allowances. The forthcoming uplift to the minimum income amount in the residential care charging formula is welcome.[1] However, the draft Integrated Impact Assessment for non-residential care charges does not discuss the increase in the minimum income amount since 2020 alongside the illustrative proposed increases in the maximum weekly charge, for comparison. The Impact Assessment also does not illustrate the impact of inflation on the core expenses which older people have to meet from their allowance. This should be modelled and stated clearly, to ensure transparency and to inform decision making.
While changes to the amount individuals pay would be based on individual financial assessments, a significant amount of older people report struggling in light of the ongoing cost of living crisis. Research undertaken for the Commissioner in March 2023, focused on people aged 60 and over in Wales, found that 64% of respondents had cut back on spending during the last 12 months. The top three areas older people said they had cut back on were:
- Energy (84%)
- Food shopping (83%)
- Social activities (65%).
As older people continue to highlight challenges resulting from the cost of living crisis, the likelihood of people being deterred from seeking an assessment of their needs until crisis point, identified in the draft Integrated Impact Assessment is very real.
The funding benefits to local authorities are not clear and references in the consultation documentation are based on provisional estimates, using data from 2021-22. The draft Integrated Impact Assessment should be expanded to address the points above and the funding benefits to local authorities should be clarified and fully understood before proceeding with any change to the current system.
The consultation response form asks “What amount, if any, would you increase this [charge] by per recipient?” and lists £15; £20; £25. There is no tick box to reject increases to the charge and this risks prejudicing the responses to the consultation.
The Commissioner believes that increasing the weekly maximum charge would mean that, as the draft Integrated Impact Assessment suggests, more older people would struggle to meet the costs of daily living as well as the cost of care and that more older people would be forced to hand back or not take up care packages. The Commissioner therefore does not support it.
National Care Service
The Welsh Government acknowledges that “raising the maximum weekly cap for non-residential care and support services is an initial departure from the vision to create a National Care Service ‘free at the point of need’” but states that “the additional revenue this would raise for local authorities to continue to deliver social care and support services would ensure we can uphold our commitment to long-term, sustainable change.”
The Commissioner is concerned that not only is raising the maximum weekly charge a departure from the Welsh Government’s policy direction but that any rise would not address fundamental issues of unmet need in the social care system.
In 2019, Audit Wales[2] found that carers were still not getting equal access to social care, and that no local authority had the balance on spend, assessments and Information, Advice and Assistance right.
In 2021, the Commissioner’s office and Age Cymru, working jointly on data from sources including Social Services statistics, Audit Wales,[3] the National Survey for Wales,[4] and Age UK,[5] estimated that the additional number of people who might need to access support services, over and above existing users, lay within a range from 83,000 (low) through 119,000 (medium) to 224,100 (high).
Instead of taking the retrograde step of increasing charges for non-residential care and support, the Commissioner believes that the Welsh Government should accelerate its ten-year delivery plan for a National Care Service , so that older people and others in Wales can access the care and support they need, when they need it.
[1] Welsh Government, Explanatory Memorandum to the Care and Support (Charging) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2024, March 2024, Explanatory Memorandum to the Care and Support (Charging) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 (senedd.wales).
[2] Auditor General for Wales, The ‘Front Door’ to Adult Social Care, September 2019 The ‘Front Door’ to Adult Social Care (audit.wales)
[3] Audit Wales, The ‘front door’ to adult social care, September 2019 https://www.audit.wales/publication/front-door-adult-social-care
[4] The Welsh Government, National Survey for Wales, April 2018-March 2019 https://gov.wales/nationalsurvey-wales-april-2018-march-2019
[5] Age UK 2021, “New analysis finds the pandemic has significantly increased older people’s need for social care” https://www.ageuk.org.uk/latest-press/articles/2021/new-analysis-finds-the-pandemic-hassignificantly-increased-older-peoples-need-for-social-care/