The true cost of care: how Lincolnshire's social care crisis is hitting families and council tax bills alike

If you have an elderly relative who needs care, the chances are you already know how much it costs. And if you live in Lincolnshire, you are helping to pay for it whether you realise it or not.

New analysis shows that 68% of Lincolnshire County Council's net budget went on adult and children's social care in 2024-25. That is £442 million out of a total budget that the council is now struggling to balance.

Care homes are feeling the pressure at every level. At Tanglewood Nursing Home in Horncastle, weekly fees average £1,300. But when the council funds a place, the home receives around £900. Families are asked to top up the difference, and manager Alice O'Hare says that is getting harder.

"People are trying to look after their loved ones at home, partly because of the cost of care," she says. "So by the time they get to us they may have had a period off work to care for them and their savings have diminished."

The result is that more families are turning to the council for help, not less. The council says it is seeing higher numbers of referrals and more complex cases.

Staff are also being squeezed. Nurse and deputy manager Jessy Romy says the pay simply does not reflect the work. "Caring is a top reward job, yet it's always the minimum wage and sometimes it's not enough for the staff as everything is expensive," she says.

Some workers are cramming shifts together and staying at friends' houses overnight just to cut their commuting costs. O'Hare describes it as "really extreme" for people who give so much.

The council faces over £80 million in cost pressures for 2026-27, with social care the main driver. Reform UK, which took control of the county council after May 2025 elections, had promised voters a different approach to spending. Residents hoping for lower bills were instead handed a 2.9% council tax rise, around 90p a week on a band D property. The council says the rise will "predominantly pay for the increase in costs and demand for social care for older people."

Cllr Tom Catton and the Reform administration say they have found £35.5 million in savings and inherited a £123 million deficit, which they are now projecting to turn into a small surplus. They describe the rise as one of the lowest among county councils in England.

But for families already stretched by the cost of care, and workers paid minimum wage to deliver it, the gapbetween political promises and lived reality is hard to ignore.

The government says it is putting more than £4.6 billion into adult social care by 2028-29, and has pledged to build a National Care Service. An independent commission is due to report its first recommendations this year.