The tax man gives and he taketh away
I heard the chancellor being interviewed this morning about his pre budget comments. This is all tied in with the Comprehensive Spending Review, interestingly and unusually social care is mentioned. He flagged up a major structural change, but gave no details. Niall Dickson from the Kings Fund is normally on the ball here
he reckons they are looking at scrapping means testing for long term care. This the chancellor denied, pointing out the huge costs involved. We are all aware something has to be done; the costs are going to spiral out of control in the next decade or two, and that’s just down to the increasing numbers of older people needing care let alone any improvement in support services.
The change I think is coming is the introduction of individualised budgets. Let’s face it, I’ve never been involved in a policy that has gained so much approval so quickly, even with the low evidence base of outcomes, the support is huge at senior government levels. This is seen as the panacea, it is something that can be said to have some sort of user control and input into its development. It is also a single budget for government as well, as a result it can control social care spending with a single stroke. I’m afraid Niall you may have it wrong this time, look out for a green paper on Individual or Personal Budgets.
Local Authorities won’t be best pleased with the paltry increase in their allocations, the social care budget only goes up by £190m for 2010, this will mean continued pressure on budgets and more cuts. Despite the current situation being dire for so many people, a colleague suggested the other day that we may well look back on these times as halcyon days when we had the most money we are likely to have for the next 50 years, he could well be proved right.
Clipart from the Valuing People Clipart collection.
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