The government has come under fire after the chancellor’s announcement last week that social care reforms will be delayed for two years.

Age UK said the delay to the social care cap of £86,000 means that people will continue to face “catastrophic” costs and brings into doubt whether the reforms will be introduced at all.

Defending the delay, Health secretary Steve Barclay told the BBC it would mean more funding could be allocated to social care to get more people out of hospital.

Barclay said: “We’re prioritising the funding we need to get that flow into the hospitals and key amongst that is getting more funding into social care.”

The government is allocating £2.8 billion in funding in 2023 with £4.7 billion in 2024 for the delivery of an additional 200,000 care packages.

It has also come under fire for using council tax as a means of delivering the funding, however.

Andrew Dilnot, the architect of the original framework for the reforms, told The Guardian that using council tax to fund social care would increase inequality as most funds would be raised in the wealthiest areas where demand for means tested care was lowest.

The reforms also include raising the threshold for when people have to pay for their own care from £23,250 to £100,000.