Carers Trust says lack of funding will force services to close
Responding to claims that the Living Wage could harm the care sector:
Dr Moira Fraser, director of policy and research for Carers Trust, said:
“The UK Homecare Association’s letter echoes Carers Trust’s own concerns about the future of home care. Carers Trust network services pride themselves on high quality care but increasingly find local authorities unable to pay the cost of providing that.
“Care support staff deserve to be paid well for the excellent job they do in supporting disabled and older people, their carers and families. However, increases in the minimum and living wage need to be matched by an increase in funding for local authorities, and this needs to feed down to the hourly rate local authorities will pay for care.
“The consequence of not doing so will lead to a breakdown in the care market as high quality providers are driven out of business, meaning people who need high quality care will be less and less able to find it.”
