![]() We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. For more information see our Privacy Policy. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. But economists pointed out his tax cuts had only been possible because he had squeezed already tight departmental budgets, in a way that would affect public services particularly in areas where demand is growing, such as social care. Hunt used the autumn statement to claim that the economy had “turned the corner”. The OBR suggested that this would create additional pressures on councils which are responsible for managing adult and child social care in their area. It made clear that as a result of central government funding cuts, spending by local authorities had fallen from 7.4% of GDP to 5% since 2011, and that this was expected to drop to 4.6% by 2028. Last week in its report accompanying the chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) highlighted the growing financial pressures faced by local authorities, which are responsible for social care provision. Mike Padgham, the boss of St Cecilia’s care home chain, said raising minimum salary thresholds without significantly increasing funding would be a “double whammy” for the sector, which he warned was “already on its knees”. Proposals to limit dependants have been condemned by migrant rights groups, which said they were “cruel” and would “rip families apart”, while care sector bosses warned that Jenrick’s proposals could lead to unsustainable staffing and financial pressure on care providers, forcing some to close. The plans are being considered by Downing Street, which is yet to comment. His other proposals include increasing the minimum salary threshold for skilled workers and a cap on overall care worker numbers. ![]() It is not yet clear whether any restrictions on dependants, if introduced, would apply only to care workers or to other health workers too. Jenrick is understood to have drawn up a five-point plan for curbing the numbers, including banning workers from bringing dependants, or restricting them to one relative. They brought with them 173,896 dependants. In the year to September 2023, 143,990 people came under the health and care worker visa route, 58% of whom were care workers. The comments come after new figures showed net migration to the UK reached a record high of 745,000 in 2022. ![]() ‘Pay care workers better’: Prof Brian Bell, chair of the government's Migration Advisory Committee. He added that “until that missing piece” of solving workforce issues was addressed, it was “very dangerous to be playing around with the numbers on the social care route”. And the government has done absolutely nothing that,” he said. “The fundamental way you solve this problem is to pay care workers better. He said that before introducing policies that would lead to a fall in people coming to work in care, the government needed to address workforce issues, including increasing funding and improving pay to attract and retain more UK staff. “But I think you have to ask the question, if you do it from the migration perspective, and you achieve that policy objective, aren’t you massively harming the social care sector?” That will reduce net migration, and so the government might be happy with that,” he said. If you make it harder for migrants to come in on the route … that might begin to reduce the number who are coming in. “You can’t encourage enough British people to do the work in social care because it’s so badly paid.
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