Disability charities have been left disappointed after junior government ministers offered the sector little support over demands for £400m of back pay, the chair of Mencap has said.
Last week Mencap warned that the disability care sector is “on the brink of collapse” with multiple charities facing insolvency, after HM Revenue & Customs sent out demands for six years’ worth of back-pay for carers on "sleep-in" shifts - estimated to cost the sector up to £400m.
Senior leaders from United Response, HFT, Mencap and private sector provider Voyage Care met business minister Margot James and health minister Jackie Doyle on 20 July.
Some charities have been ordered to make payments by as early as 15 August, and ministers were warned that they needed to make an intervention before that date to halt HMRC enforcement, or charities would be put at risk of insolvency. But Mencap chairman Derek Lewis said the ministers were unable to say what they would do.
He said: “The learning disability sector welcomed the acknowledgement by junior ministers of the gravity and scale of the problem and their concern for vulnerable families.
“However, the inability of government even to indicate the likely timing of a decision, let alone put forward an interim solution to the problem, was more than surprising after months of discussion.
“As Mencap has made clear, the clock is ticking – no decision to halt HMRC enforcement action by 15 August will have very serious consequences for providers and their continued viability to operate.”
In Charity Finance
Lewis said his charity would continue to lobby the government and said the potential “crisis” of charities going bust should be “a top priority for the senior ministers in any caring government”.
Mencap has appealed an employment tribunal case taken by trade union UNISON relating to the back-pay issue, with a hearing scheduled for March 2018. It said that if the Court of Appeal upholds the tribunal's decision, the government will have to step in and fund back pay.
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