CARE homes and domiciliary care companies in Dwyfor and Meirionnydd are threatened with closure because of a looming funding crisis, says social care workforce Five Nations.

The workforce says the planned introduction of the living wage in the social care sector will have “catastrophic” consequences unless more money is found to pay for the spiralling costs of care.

The Five Nations Care Forum says it is so worried that it has written to Chancellor George Osb­orne warning him it could push many care and nursing homes and domiciliary care companies over the financial edge.

People working in social care are due to start recei­ving the living wage, set at £7.20 an hour, from next April.

Mario Kreft MBE, chair of Care Forum Wales and a founder member of the Five Nations, was also concerned about the impact on the older and disabled people who use care services.

He said: “We call on government and the dev­olved Ministers to ensure that care services are adequately funded now and in the future.

“It is right that care workers should be well rew­arded for the important work they do.

“However this is unrealistic for publically funded care providers given current prices paid by commissioning bodies for care.

“It has been estimated that the cost of funding the National Living Wage in the care sector in the UK will be in excess of £2.3 billion by 2020.

“It is vital therefore that the Chancellor addresses the growing deficit in the social care sector and that funding is provided to ensure the devolved departments with care commissioning responsibilities have adequate funds to meet the care and support needs of the population.

“We are concerned that the rising costs of delivering care, if they are not met with an adequate increase in funding, will have catastrophic impli­cations for the sector as a whole and will have consequences for the statutory health sector in the form of delayed discharges and increasing demographic pressures.

“Diminished capacity in the social care sector and the increasing risk of provider failure – apart from having a serious negative effect on citizens – will impact greatly on the efficiency of the health sector.

“We estimate that over the financial year 2013/14 the statutory health sector in the UK spent well in excess of £1.05 billion on delayed discharges.

“If this situation is not resolved as a matter of urgency, we are concerned that the growing pressures on the health sector over the winter months will result in a serious crisis in the sector. This will impact most acutely on people with health and care needs.”