Wes Streeting denies the government is delaying solving Britain’s welfare crisis
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The UK government has rejected criticism that it is delaying tackling the social care crisis after it said a review of one of the country’s most pressing policy problems would not be completed until 2028.
The first phase of the review, led by Baroness Louise Casey, an experienced Whitehall problem-solving specialist, is due to be published in mid-2026. It will identify critical issues facing adult social care and make recommendations for medium-term reforms.
But the second phase, which will make long-term recommendations to deal with Britain’s aging population, will not be published until 2028 – the year before the next general election.
Asked on Friday if he kicked the problem into the tall grass, Wes Streetingthe health secretary, told the BBC: “I think it would be a fair criticism if we hadn’t already acted on social care, if we hadn’t already done a lot in the first six months.”
He added that “the first part of the Casey Commission is not reporting in 2028 – it is reporting next year”.
But Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King’s Fund, a health and social care think-tank, urged ministers to speed up commission planning, saying it was “too long to wait” for people in care and their families.
Natasha Curry, deputy director of policy at research group the Nuffield Trust, said ministers should be more urgent given the “high costs” facing the care sector – including higher National Insurance payments.
“It is an understandable ambition to implement a comprehensive reform in the medium and long term, as part of the phase plan, but there must also be more immediate support for social care,” she added.
Baroness Casey’s appointment is an attempt to break the political stalemate after decades of tussle over social care, which has weighed heavily on the overstretched NHS.
Despite the millions of people affected, the issue was barely mentioned in last year’s general election.
A government-commissioned study published last year by Lord Ara Darzi described the crisis facing social care provision as “terrible“. Peer said the lack of funding had a “profound human cost and economic consequences” for older people and their families.
Sir Tony Blair set up a royal commission into the care of older people at the start of the last Labor government in 1997, but eventually rejected its recommendations for free personal care because of the cost.
Since then, various government initiatives have been proposed to fund the social welfare system, but they have faced negative public reactions.
Successive governments have delayed the introduction of a cap on the cost of living that each individual must pay for their personal care in England.
The cap — set at £86,000 by the last Tory government — was due to come into force this October, but after Chancellor Rachel Reeves revealed what ministers described as a £22bn “black hole” in the public finances, the plans were delayed again for an indefinite period of time.
Caroline Abrahams, director of the charity Age UK, said Casey’s review could finally break the “stalemate” over social care funding.
“We say ‘potentially’ because while we have no doubt that Baroness Casey will do an excellent job, the real question is whether the government will act decisively on her conclusions,” she said.
The King’s Fund’s Woolnough said the first phase of Casey’s review should look at greater use of data and technology in the sector, better integration with NHS and make social care for adults a more attractive career.
Streeting also announced an £86m increase in Disability Grant for this financial year, taking the annual total to £711m, to enable more disabled and older people to improve their homes.