Oldham Labour Council is adding 2% to council tax for adult social care despite spending £12 million less on adult social care in 2020/2021 than in 2019/2020

We’ve all seen that Arooj Shah’s Labour Oldham administration is adding 2% to council tax for adult social care in 2022/2023 including 1% allocated to a pay rise for care workers. What you haven’t seen is that in 2020/2021 Oldham Council spent almost £12 million less on adult social care than in 2019/2020 that’s a decrease of 15.1%, in these circumstances the savings from 2020/2021 should be funding the pay increase not the general public. In 2019/2020 Oldham added the 2nd highest adult social care charge in the country, the charge was more than double that in 8 of the 9 other GM authorities and 50% higher than in Manchester. Back in 2018 Labour Oldham took a supposedly ringfenced £701,000 adult social care grant and diverted it to general social care. In 2020/2021 the demand for adult social care in the under 65’s increased by over 50% so expect another increase next year if this trend continues