Learning disability charity Hft warns that the 2025 Budget failed to offer a meaningful plan to stabilise an adult social care sector already under intense pressure.
Hft is also deeply concerned at the reference to more welfare reforms, changes to Motability and yet another ‘crack down’ on Fraud and Error.
Responding to the Budget, Stephen Veevers, Chief Executive of Hft, said:
“This Budget leaves learning disabled people and the social care sector dangerously exposed. At a time when services are closing, staff shortages are worsening and costs are rising, silence on adult social care should not be an option.”
Care providers including charities like Hft are facing rising costs, workforce shortages and growing demand. and now face additional pressures from today’s Budget, with rising wage costs with no clear plan to fund them, repeating mistakes from 2024’s budget.
“Last year’s NI changes added more than £2.6m to Hft’s annual costs,” says Veevers. “Local authorities were compensated. Providers including charities like us weren’t. We cannot keep absorbing unfunded pressures and still deliver safe, consistent support.”
Even in the face of these huge issues, the Chancellor’s silence on social care and disability was deafening, despite the scale of the crisis facing learning disabled people and their families.
Last year’s unfunded rise in Employers’ National Insurance Contributions (ENICs) added more than £2.6 million to Hft’s annual costs. Providers cannot sustain another year of unfunded multi-million pound increases in costs especially charities like Hft.
Sector-wide data shows the impact is already severe: 1 in 3 providers is considering exiting the market, others have closed services or handed back contracts, and chronic vacancies have increased reliance on agency staff driving up costs further.
Motability & welfare reform
These pressures are now compounded by welfare announcements in today’s Budget.
Motability changes announced today raise serious concerns. Disabled households already face an average of £1,010 extra in monthly living costs, and increases to VAT, vehicle tax or insurance risks making essential transport unaffordable.
“Any tightening of Motability rules or increases to vehicle costs like the proposed new VAT costs could be devastating. Disabled households already face over £1,000 in average extra monthly living costs. Accessible transport isn’t a luxury—it’s independence and part of the pathway to work”.
Around 75% of learning disabled people receive the enhanced mobility rate of PIP, enabling Motability eligibility for the families who support them. Even small changes can restrict independence and opportunities.
Another ‘crackdown’ on fraud and error needs to focus on where both fraud and error happen most. The Government’s own data shows fraud in PIP is effectively zero, yet disabled people continue to face some of the most intensive and intrusive scrutiny in the welfare system.
Most overpayments arise from administrative error or complexity, not wrongdoing. The government needs to focus their crack-down on complex and inaccessible benefits systems which causes confusion and those areas where fraud actually takes place.
Delays and restrictions in Access to Work, complex PIP reviews and now Motability changes act as barriers to work and independence. These fly in the face of the government’s ambition to get more disabled people into work. With only 29% of working-age learning disabled adults in work, implying that employment is simply about motivation ignores the real barriers learning disabled people face.
Hft warns that based on today’s budget announcement, these combined pressures create a perfect storm that risks pushing learning disabled people, their families and social care providers beyond breaking point.
“We need urgent clarity from Government: on funding, on workforce, and on welfare. Without decisive action, the pressures facing social care and disabled people will become untenable.”
