Care leaders have slammed yesterday’s Spring Budget as a “non-event” for older people.

While cutting National Insurance by 2p and providing a £3.4 billion fully funded productivity plan for the NHS, the announcement offered no new money for social care.

Care leaders were quick to vent their disappointment as the sector was left in the cold again.

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Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK & co- chair of the CSA, said the announcement was a “non-event for older people”.

Abrahams continued: “We understand that the picture for other public services, especially social care among other council services, remains incredibly bleak: on behalf of older people, disabled people and their unpaid carers we are sad the Budget did nothing to address this.”

Mike Padgham, chair of the Independent Care Group, said: “Today there was an opportunity to be bold and go down as the chancellor who acted on the crisis in social care and began the process of creating a National Care Service for the country.

“Instead, the sector was ignored once again and the crisis will deepen, letting down thousands of older and vulnerable adults and damaging our ability to work hand in hand with the NHS to create cradle-to-the-grave help and support.”

Frances Lawrence, chief executive of Dementia Carers Count, said the chancellor’s failure to prioritise adequate investment in social was a “bitter disappointment”.

Lawrence warned of a “double whammy” with dementia carers and those they care for being reliant on services which are “overstretched and under-resourced”.

“Ring-fenced investment now in social care could mitigate against this,” Lawrence said. “Ignoring the social care crisis is simply storing up far greater problems for the future.”

Cera’s co-founder and chief executive, Dr Ben Maruthappu, said: “Securing the long-term prospects of the NHS is dependent on investment in the growth and maintenance of crucial supporting services, including adult social care.

“Without further investment in social care, it will be impossible to solve the pressures currently being faced by the NHS, including record-high waiting lists and getting more patients the urgent treatment they need.”

Suhail Mirza, non-executive director, Newcross Healthcare and host of the Voices of Care podcast, said: “This government’s 2019 manifesto promise to ‘fix’ social care appears to have been abandoned. The consequences will haunt us and the NHS for time to come.”