An estimated £80-115 billion of cuts in public expenditure, depending on which forecasts you read, has been set into motion.
Not surprisingly, many people will be affected in all walks of society.
Working in the Social Welfare areas of the law, there are numerous aspects of the spending review which are certain to impact on my own client groups.
I work mostly with disabled people in need of community care and support. I also work with those who care for such people…generally the less financially advantaged of the population.
Cuts in the spend on Social Housing, in Welfare Benefits and in Local Authority budgets are to be made on top of what are already very tight areas of expenditure.
It is difficult to imagine how people I deal with every day will not be affected in several ways.
Their income may well decrease either because their benefits will reduce, or the cost of their contributions to the cost of care provided to them by their Local Authority will increase. The care itself may be reduced by the Local Authority, forcing them to find alternatives at their own expense. Their housing needs will also become more expensive to meet as Not For Profit Housing Providers see real cuts in their subsidies and people are forced to seek accommodation in the private sector, usually a much more expensive alternative.
Recent changes in the law on delivering community care were meant to place individuals in control of their own ‘care budgets’, allowing them to choose, arrange and administer the care which suited them best.
These changes were a move towards what pressure groups (and common sense) had demanded for years…that people who are disabled, ill, elderly or infirmed know best what they need.
The cuts announced yesterday may well mean that – although a person will nominally remain in control of their own care – that care may reduce (or the cost of it increase in real terms) to such an extent that they are left controlling a package of care which no longer effectively meets their needs.
As it is a statutory duty placed upon Local Authorities to meet such community care needs, then the Government has remained almost silent on how this particular circle will be squared.
By community care advisor, Pete Donohue