Council tax increases will fail to fix the ‘chronically underfunded’ social care system, local authority leaders have warned.
Research from the Local Government Association (LGA) has found that 83 of England’s social care authorities are considering or have approved an adult social care precept in 2019/20, with 38 using the full 2% precept.
The adult social care precept rises will bring in an extra £197m to pay for adult social care services, which, the LGA points out, would not even cover the £290m cost of paying for the increase in the National Living Wage.
It has been estimated that even if all councils used their council tax flexibilities to the maximum allowed adult social care services would still face a funding gap of at least £1bn in 2019/20 just with maintaining existing standards of care.