Care costs in England are "broken". Here is what that means for your family, and how to have your say
By David Hall, founder, AirCarers Companion. Published 25 September 2026.
On 21 September 2026 the Joseph Rowntree Foundation published a briefing calling England's social care charging system broken: unfair, expensive to use and doing little to protect the economically insecure. A third of the 12 million older people in England have a social care need, 1 in 7 older people using social care face lifetime costs of over £100,000, and the £23,250 upper savings threshold has been frozen for 16 years. A day later the independent Casey Commission began inviting households to join a Public Panel on Care as part of its Big Conversation on Care, which runs until April 2027, with its report due by summer 2027.
Until reform arrives, families will be working with the system as it is. The article covers the gap nobody funds before formal care, the pressure on hospitals and discharge, and practical steps: ask Hertfordshire County Council for a free needs assessment, ask for a carer's assessment, check Attendance Allowance, register as a carer on the NHS App, keep routine and company going, ask about Martha's Rule in A&E, and consider joining the Public Panel. Read our guide to coming home after hospital.
AirCarers Companion offers help before care with local companions in Ware, Hertford, Hoddesdon, Broxbourne, Bishop's Stortford and Sawbridgeworth, from £25 an hour. We are not a CQC registered care agency and do not provide personal or clinical care. If someone is coming home from hospital, a companion can travel home with them and stay for company while they settle in; see our hospital discharge support page. Call 07455 750006 or email lucie@aircarers.co.uk.