Ben Ramanauskas has worked in academia and as an adviser to the government. He is currently writing a book on the UK economy.
Without warning and with no time to prepare, I found myself becoming an unpaid carer last year. It was, without a doubt, the most stressful period of my life.
I navigated new responsibilities which I was very much ill-suited for. It also meant that I had the frustration of having to place my career on hold and spend less time with my friends and doing many of the things that I enjoy. I also felt that it perhaps offered a grim glimpse of the future. All of this paled in comparison with the distress of seeing a loved one suffer.
In many ways, I was quite fortunate. I could afford to take time off and knew that it would be only temporary with a positive outcome in sight. This is not the case for so many other unpaid carers around the country (of which there are well over 5 million) who are not in a position where they can still live comfortably if they give up work or whose only ‘relief’ from their caring responsibilities will come when their loved one dies. I think of the example of my mum who, in between shifts as a cleaner and raising three children as a single parent, cared for her mum who was suffering from the truly cruel Alzheimer’s disease.
Then there are, of course, the millions of people who are in need of care. These are our fellow citizens who, through no fault of their own, have found themselves unable to properly take care of themselves or return to work. Whatever their condition these people still have value and deserve to live their lives with dignity. Their plight is seldom discussed and they have been failed by the state.
The failure of successive governments to tackle the crisis in social care is not just a grave injustice for those experiencing it, it is also bad for the economy. The current government and previous Conservative governments have often made tackling worklessness a key objective of their administrations and they are right to do so. Unfortunately, many people of working age are unable to return to the labour market as they are not receiving the treatment and care that would allow them to do so.
Moreover, people working as unpaid carers have to choose between caring for their loved ones rather than working or returning to their job and worrying that their relatives are not receiving adequate care. Many of the unpaid carers I have spoken to as part of the research for a book I am writing have said that they have had to make the agonising decision to leave jobs that they loved to become unpaid carers. Those who had kept working but had reduced their hours said that they felt far less ‘present’ when at work due to feeling anxious about their loved ones at home.
Economists like to speak of the ‘Productivity Puzzle’ in the UK. While there are many factors to it, the experience of people within the adult social care system shows that it isn’t that much of a puzzle at all. We have millions of people who are no longer working in roles for which they have the right skills and experience and are instead working as carers.
As such, businesses struggle to fill vacancies or have to settle for less talented employees and so they are less productive. Furthermore, many of the people who require care have so much untapped talent and potential but are unable to make a positive contribution as they are not receiving adequate care. Given that productivity is the key driver of economic growth, it is hardly surprising that we have seen very little of it over the past two decades.
The failure to reform social care has also been a disaster for local authorities. Their funding has been cut and the government ties their hands when it comes to revenue raising. Given that many of them are on the verge of bankruptcy then they urgently need some sort of solution to the social care crisis.
Unfortunately, Wes Streeting has followed the example of his Conservative predecessors by kicking the can down the road. He has set up an independent commission which will tell him what he should do in 2028. Given that the social care crisis is happening right now and the fact that Labour had quite some time to prepare for government, this represents an awful abdication of responsibility by the current (as well as former) governments.
So, what should be done?
The first step is to tackle the short-term crisis in social care which is caused by not enough people entering the profession. If the Government wants to see more people working as carers without relying on immigration then they will need to increase funding so that care workers are paid higher wages without their employers having to make cutbacks elsewhere.
The second step will be to look at the long term. A potential solution here is provided by adopting more technology and AI. Back in 2019, I wrote a paper for the TaxPayers’ Alliance which found that embracing automation could bring in annual savings of £5.9 billion in social care by 2030.
Finally, we need to look at giving local authorities greater revenue-raising powers. Fiscal devolution could allow local authorities to raise the money they need to fund adult social care in their areas.
All three of these steps will involve controversial decisions over tax and spend and should include ensuring that wealthy older people pay more money for their own care. These decisions will be deeply unpopular with the media, the public, and probably from the Conservative Party. They will also be strongly opposed by officials at HM Treasury who hate large upfront spending commitments being used to bring about growth and savings in the future and who are likely delighted that the independent commission’s findings won’t be delivered until just before the next general election.
However, Labour wanted to govern the country and they were granted a huge majority by the British public last summer. Rather than engaging in more can kicking or shirking responsibility, they should do their job and reform adult social care, even if that makes them unpopular.
There is a crisis in social care and it’s causing a huge amount of damage to the UK and its people, the Government needs to act now to fix it.
Ben Ramanauskas has worked in academia and as an adviser to the government. He is currently writing a book on the UK economy.
Without warning and with no time to prepare, I found myself becoming an unpaid carer last year. It was, without a doubt, the most stressful period of my life.
I navigated new responsibilities which I was very much ill-suited for. It also meant that I had the frustration of having to place my career on hold and spend less time with my friends and doing many of the things that I enjoy. I also felt that it perhaps offered a grim glimpse of the future. All of this paled in comparison with the distress of seeing a loved one suffer.
In many ways, I was quite fortunate. I could afford to take time off and knew that it would be only temporary with a positive outcome in sight. This is not the case for so many other unpaid carers around the country (of which there are well over 5 million) who are not in a position where they can still live comfortably if they give up work or whose only ‘relief’ from their caring responsibilities will come when their loved one dies. I think of the example of my mum who, in between shifts as a cleaner and raising three children as a single parent, cared for her mum who was suffering from the truly cruel Alzheimer’s disease.
Then there are, of course, the millions of people who are in need of care. These are our fellow citizens who, through no fault of their own, have found themselves unable to properly take care of themselves or return to work. Whatever their condition these people still have value and deserve to live their lives with dignity. Their plight is seldom discussed and they have been failed by the state.
The failure of successive governments to tackle the crisis in social care is not just a grave injustice for those experiencing it, it is also bad for the economy. The current government and previous Conservative governments have often made tackling worklessness a key objective of their administrations and they are right to do so. Unfortunately, many people of working age are unable to return to the labour market as they are not receiving the treatment and care that would allow them to do so.
Moreover, people working as unpaid carers have to choose between caring for their loved ones rather than working or returning to their job and worrying that their relatives are not receiving adequate care. Many of the unpaid carers I have spoken to as part of the research for a book I am writing have said that they have had to make the agonising decision to leave jobs that they loved to become unpaid carers. Those who had kept working but had reduced their hours said that they felt far less ‘present’ when at work due to feeling anxious about their loved ones at home.
Economists like to speak of the ‘Productivity Puzzle’ in the UK. While there are many factors to it, the experience of people within the adult social care system shows that it isn’t that much of a puzzle at all. We have millions of people who are no longer working in roles for which they have the right skills and experience and are instead working as carers.
As such, businesses struggle to fill vacancies or have to settle for less talented employees and so they are less productive. Furthermore, many of the people who require care have so much untapped talent and potential but are unable to make a positive contribution as they are not receiving adequate care. Given that productivity is the key driver of economic growth, it is hardly surprising that we have seen very little of it over the past two decades.
The failure to reform social care has also been a disaster for local authorities. Their funding has been cut and the government ties their hands when it comes to revenue raising. Given that many of them are on the verge of bankruptcy then they urgently need some sort of solution to the social care crisis.
Unfortunately, Wes Streeting has followed the example of his Conservative predecessors by kicking the can down the road. He has set up an independent commission which will tell him what he should do in 2028. Given that the social care crisis is happening right now and the fact that Labour had quite some time to prepare for government, this represents an awful abdication of responsibility by the current (as well as former) governments.
So, what should be done?
The first step is to tackle the short-term crisis in social care which is caused by not enough people entering the profession. If the Government wants to see more people working as carers without relying on immigration then they will need to increase funding so that care workers are paid higher wages without their employers having to make cutbacks elsewhere.
The second step will be to look at the long term. A potential solution here is provided by adopting more technology and AI. Back in 2019, I wrote a paper for the TaxPayers’ Alliance which found that embracing automation could bring in annual savings of £5.9 billion in social care by 2030.
Finally, we need to look at giving local authorities greater revenue-raising powers. Fiscal devolution could allow local authorities to raise the money they need to fund adult social care in their areas.
All three of these steps will involve controversial decisions over tax and spend and should include ensuring that wealthy older people pay more money for their own care. These decisions will be deeply unpopular with the media, the public, and probably from the Conservative Party. They will also be strongly opposed by officials at HM Treasury who hate large upfront spending commitments being used to bring about growth and savings in the future and who are likely delighted that the independent commission’s findings won’t be delivered until just before the next general election.
However, Labour wanted to govern the country and they were granted a huge majority by the British public last summer. Rather than engaging in more can kicking or shirking responsibility, they should do their job and reform adult social care, even if that makes them unpopular.
There is a crisis in social care and it’s causing a huge amount of damage to the UK and its people, the Government needs to act now to fix it.