Autumn Statement Preview

On Thursday (17 November), the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt will deliver the first Autumn Statement since his appointment last month and the first of Rishi Sunak’s premiership.

Mr Hunt is expected to undo much of the former Prime Minister Liz Truss’ economic plans announced only weeks ago. Instead, we can expect tax rises and spending cuts across the board as the UK Government tries to get to grips with the country’s fragile financial situation.

While energy prices and the cost of living has become more prominent of late, BASW knows that many people have been suffering under austerity measures for 12 years. Any announcement by the Government must recognise that people living in poverty have been hit by successive policy interventions over the years that have reduced household income and made it harder to afford basic essentials.

Inflicting further austerity and deep public sector cuts would result in devastating human cost and is not a responsible solution.

BASW has therefore written to the Chancellor urging him to introduce targeted and effective measures to support those on the lowest incomes who are being hardest hit by the cost of living crisis. Read the letter here.

In this Autumn Statement, BASW wants to see:

1. Immediate uplift to Universal Credit and legacy benefits in line with inflation

People who survive on small amounts of money, such as those on social security, cannot tighten their belts or dip into savings. Living month to month with barely enough money to get by means that when costs rise even just a little, people have to cut back on the essentials such as food or heating. People on social security will not benefit from tax cuts, and they cannot wait for promises of acting in the future. An injection of funding to help people on Universal Credit and legacy benefits get through the crisis must be top of the Government’s list.

Low incomes can result in poverty, which can add to existing problems such as domestic violence and mental health problems and push vulnerable parents into despair. If the Government is serious about reducing the number of children coming into care and supporting families to stay together, then Government must take positive action to deliver this. Tackling poverty is one of those positive actions.

2. Supporting the social work workforce

Millions of people have been hit by the rising cost of living, and even those in full-time work are worrying about how to make ends meet. With fuel costs and energy bills rising, the Government must take action to support social workers through the crisis by lifting the non-taxable rate to 60p a mile on mileage allowance and increase the working from home allowance so that those who use their home to work from are not penalised through their energy bills.

We also need a nationwide recruitment campaign, funded and co-ordinated centrally by government, to improve social work recruitment and retention. The profession has been under-resourced and under-capacity for too long. The impact of that will only worsen if demands on services continue to rise. It’s high time social work is given the respect and support it needs and deserves.

3. Investment in social work and social care

Cuts to local authority budgets has resulted in councils and services having much less money to deliver the support that people need.  Reductions to local authority budgets have forced councils into prioritising statutory services, with preventative and early intervention services being cut. We are also aware that some statutory services are being deprioritised, which is leading to soaring demand for later stage crisis services.

Our society has an ageing population, across all income groups, and as you well know increasing numbers of frail elderly and disabled people have increasingly complex needs. Sufficient funding is required to avert a developing Adult Social Care crisis, which will affect all but the wealthiest in our society.

We are aware that the Prime Minister pledged to redirect he £13bn marked for the NHS to social care, but simply moving money around between services that work together will not deliver positive outcomes. Both the NHS and social care needs to be properly funded and not pit against each other, to ensure proper integration.