FINANCE & LEGAL


“The social care crisis needs more than one solution”


John Woodward OBE was one of the main driving forces behind the childcare voucher


scheme and he is now campaigning for a similar salary sacrifice initiative for social care. Here, he addresses the current state of social care and how he feels this can be changed.


In the UK at the moment, it is widely accepted that our social care system is in crisis. First and foremost, this is a funding problem.


Panorama’s ‘Crisis in Care’ programme was a public service to every one of us who cares about our creaking care


system, from carers and campaigners to vulnerable people. It highlighted the impossible situation social care finds itself in.


The social care system in England is uniquely vulnerable, squeezed between our behemoth National Health Service, a governing party with a paper-thin majority and a devolution settlement that encourages fobbing the problem off on local government. Not so much caught between rock and hard place as stuck between rock, hard place and the kind of financial tricks that always come back to bite you in the end. And come back to bite they have.


Now, don’t judge me straight away - I’m about to blame the NHS for something. Nigel Lawson, Chancellor of the Exchequer from ’83 to ’89, said the NHS “is the closest thing the English have to a religion”, and he was right. It even has its own iconography, and politicians fall over themselves to wear the latest NHS badge to show their support. Its revered status means any available cash goes to the NHS, and social care gets leſt in the dark.


The NHS is an incredible institution, set up and cared for in such a way that it makes itself heard in every debate. The same care and attention needs to be paid to our social care system.


When trying to solve complex problems, politicians are usually tempted by one-size-fits-all solutions. But the problem with simple solutions is that no one stakeholder can afford to foot the bill. National Social Care Service? The government can’t pay. An insurance or annuity system? Too complicated to work out the risk. What about leaving it to the individual? No one thinks they’re going to get old, so they don’t save.


The real solution lies in all of these, and requires a clever mix of financial incentives and legal changes that address these


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three problems: government won’t pay, insurers won’t insure, and the public won’t save.


The government needs to move first, by making some small but impactful changes. There is a mixed role to play between the public and private spheres, just like with pensions.


The social care green paper needs to do two things: provide incentives to save, and remove ‘catastrophic risk’ that exists for those who are unlucky enough to require long-term care, like those with dementia.


“The NHS is an incredible institution, set up and cared for


in such a way that it makes itself heard in every debate. The same care and attention needs to be paid to our social care system.”


Firstly, one possible de-risking solution would be for the government to cap social care costs above a certain limit. This would mean financial service providers find it much easier to insure and offer annuities, while individuals aren’t running the risk that their hard-earned savings and assets will be swallowed up over time, and they’ll never need to sell their home to pay for care.


Secondly, I’ve long believed that the incentive part of this solution lies in a similar place to childcare vouchers or, in this case – adult social care vouchers. Vouchers are a way for you to reduce the amount of tax you pay on your income so that you can save for a public good, like your future social care provision. Ideally, if this money isn’t used, it could be passed on as part of an estate.


By making these changes, government, individuals and financial service providers can work together to deliver a sustainable social care system without asking one part to foot the bill alone.


www.tomorrowscare.co.uk


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