Personal budgets will 'fail to secure value' claims NAO

摘要

Government targets to extend personal budgets to all social care-users by April 2013 will fail to secure value for money, unless markets deliver genuine user choice and provide competition, a spending watchdog has warned. According to a National Audit Office (NAO) study, most of the 340,000 people trialling f1-5bn personal care budgets reported improved wellbeing. Instances of innovation, such as joint pooling of budgets with others to cover the costs of personal assistants were recorded. A small minority (31%), however, felt worse off under the system, and others surveyed said they found purchasing their own care difficult.