Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the additional cost to social care providers of (1) the increase to employer National Insurance contributions, and (2) the rise in the National Living Wage, announced in the Autumn Budget.

The Government considered the cost pressures facing adult social care as part of the wider consideration of local government spending within the Spending Review process.

In response to these pressures, the Government is providing at least £600 million of new grant funding for social care in 2025/26, as part of the broader estimated real-terms uplift to core local government spending power of approximately 3.2%. We will continue to work with the adult social care sector to understand the pressures on adult social care delivery and local authority budgets.