Saga UK responds to forced closure of private social care companies
Lisa Harris, head of communications for Saga comments an investigation by the BBC's Panorama found that as many as one in four private providers in England is at risk of insolvency, while 69 companies have closed in the last three months alone.
"We are in the midst of an unprecedented crisis in the care industry. Successive governments have promised to address the problems but failed to do so, choosing instead to kick the problem into the long grass. Whilst the recent budget promised a financial boost to the social care sector, this doesn't even make up for the short-fall faced by local authorities and certainly doesn't future-proof them for the expected increase in the number of people that will require care in the future.
"More creative solutions are needed and public and private money is going to be needed to improve the system. The Government can help by enabling more families to pay for care; by enabling people to save tax free for care – allowing tax free withdrawals from pension savings, by making it easier for people to look after their own family either by paying for care for them and making it tax deductible, or giving other incentives to people to take time off to care for their loved one themselves."
