What is social care?
Social care is practical, professional support for people who need extra support with everyday life. This might be help with cooking, shopping, personal care or support with managing money or getting a job.
Tens of thousands of people with a
learning disability
A learning disability is to do with the way someone's brain works. It makes it harder for someone to learn, understand or do things.
and their family members currently get social care support which is funded by
the government
The Government are the people who run the country. The Government decide how much
tax
Tax is the money that pays for things like schools, hospitals and the police. There are different types of taxes like
income tax
Income tax is the money that is taken out of the money you earn every month. It helps to pay for things we all need like hospitals and schools.
,
VAT
VAT is also called Value Added Tax. VAT is the extra money you pay when you buy things. The money goes to the government to pay for things like schools and hospitals.
and
council tax
Council Tax is the money that people pay to the council. It helps to pay for things like social care (support for people), parks and dustbin collection.
.
people should pay and how things like the National Health Service (
NHS
The NHS is the National Health Service. The NHS gives free healthcare to everyone in the UK and includes things like your GP (doctors) surgery and hospitals.
) should work.
. This ranges from a few hours of support a week for some people to round-the-clock care for others.
The links below will take you through to pages on information so you can find out more about different parts of the social care system.
Special thanks to Irwin Mitchell Solicitors for helping us write this information.
#SocialCareCrisis
We surveyed 1,069 family carers of people with a learning disability to find out how they have been affected during the coronavirus lockdown by
cuts
Cuts are when there is less money to pay for things like clubs and support.
to social care.
Our findings show the devastating impact of lockdown on people with a learning disability and that families are being pushed to the brink.
Find out more and what you can do to help.
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The Mencap helpline is a member of Advice UK in England.