National Insurance and higher wages will see Gwynedd’s Meddyg Care Group face a massive £500,000 bill, bosses say.

Social care champions, Care Forum Wales (CFW), are so worried about the impact they have launched a new campaign, Save Social Care, Save the NHS, calling for social care to receive an NHS-style exemption from the NI increases or emergency financial support to stop care homes and domiciliary care companies going bust.

Between its three nursing homes in Porthmadog and Cricieth as well as domiciliary care service, Help At Home, Meddyg Care Group has 112 beds, employs over 200 staff and provides around 4,000 hours a month of domiciliary care.

Managing Director Kevin Edwards said: “We’ve had a look at the National Insurance numbers, and the increased cost is going to be in the region of £200,000.

“That is just the National Insurance, not the wage increase, that will be another cost.

“A lot of our staff are not paid the National Minimum Wage, they are on the Real Living Wage, so the cost is higher.

“With the minimum wage rate increase and National Insurance hike the cost is around £2,500 per person per annum, but all of our staff are paid in excess of that.

“So we are looking at in the region of a 10 per cent rise in wage costs.

“A lot of our services are quite specialist, we provide essential services, so we have no option other than to pass the costs on to the local authorities and health boards who place individuals in our care”.

“What people don’t realise is this is a stealth tax on the council tax, because the local authority will pay our rates, they simply don’t have a choice.

“The fundamental problem is they want gold standard care, and they want us to maintain a high standard as part of the pre-placement agreement, but you can’t do it on peanuts.”

Mr Edwards said it was essential local authorities paid the necessary fees to ensure care homes ran effectively and safely.

With a 1.2 per cent rise in Employer National Insurance contributions and a cut to the Secondary Threshold to £5,000 alongside the five per cent increase in the Real Living Wage to £12.60, CFW has calculated the sector in Wales faces a £150 million funding hole.

Nicola Rutherford, Meddyg Care Group Co-Director, said the measures included in the Budget might discourage staff from working so many hours in care homes.

She said: “I think the mistake government is making is they are putting good money after bad at the NHS without clear direction.

“It gets swallowed up in layers of bureaucracy.

“They should be looking to keep people in their homes for longer or in a safe setting care home and keeping them out of the hospitals, and keeping hospitals free so those in need of appropriate treatment receive it, which was what the NHS was created for.

“You can’t fix the NHS until you fix the social care sector.”