The recently announced increase to national insurance (NI) contributions will have a huge impact on Disabled people and PA's and the social care system.
Factors such as rise in tax and NI and inflation only exacerbate the financial problems that Disabled people already experience in their day-to-day life. The rise in tax and NI will have direct consequences in the care support package which Disabled people receive from their local council, which could lead to reduced care support hours. This could, in turn, force existing PA’s and personal care workers to search for new work opportunities due to reduction in net pay. The increased tax and NI will lead to PA’s wages either remaining stagnant or reducing, not in line with inflation and cost of living. Needless to say, Local Authorities (LAs) don’t easily increase the funds or hourly rate in line with the cost of living and Disabled people undergo lots of challenges to request an increase of funds from social services.
There is a strong likelihood that most of the social care funds given by the local authority to Disabled people will have to be allocated to the PA’s to maintain constant payments, which leaves the Disabled person unable to pay for the costs of other services such as therapies or recreational services in day centres or sport leisure centres. Advocacy services may be very minimal. If Disabled people find themselves unable to pay the wages of their PA’s, then legal action can be initiated by the PA’s due to non-payment or part-payment due to higher tax and NI. There is the danger that some Disabled people will be left with minimum care support or even no support which can be significantly detrimental to their overall wellbeing.
The care and support package funds given by LA’s may not be sufficient to cover the increased tax and NI. This means that Disabled people will have to pay from their own income or disability benefits to top up the social care funds. This is because the PA’s would expect the deficit in their payments to be covered by their employers. In addition, care agencies will send higher invoices to the Disabled person to cover the increase in tax and NI. The cost of living together with higher tax and NI has the potential to push Disabled people further into poverty.