MINISTERS are being urged to step in to plug a £92million funding black hole in adult social care for Lancashire.

County councillors are set to write to Whitehall, amid concerns that the shortfall, by 2020-21, will put key services at risk.

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Chancellor Philip Hammond and social care minister David Mowat will be told an anticipated two per cent council tax precept will only raise £8.3million, and the Better Care Fund just £3.2million over the next financial year, where the gap is already.

Ian Crabtree, the county’s policy head, warned the council’s scrutiny committee that a growing elderly population and more severe care needs for those entering residential homes will only add to the expected pressures.

County Cllr Liz Oades said: “It just seems that this particular part of the service is in crisis to me, along with the NHS. I’m ashamed for a rich country like this to see what’s happening.

“We have baby boomers like myself, born in the 1950s, who are getting older and when we start needing care it is going to get worse. Somebody has to address that.”

County Cllr Lizzi Collinge said: “This is something we can’t control ourselves in Lancashire, as much as we would like to.”

The letter was the brainchild of Liberal Democrat group leader and committee chairman County Cllr Bill Winlow, who also suggested writing to Lancashire MPs to highlight the issue.

In a statement later County Cllr Tony Martin, adult and community services cabinet member, said: “Increasing demand for our services and reductions in government funding mean the county council faces a funding gap of £148 million by 2020-21.

“We spend most of our funding on adult social care, so it is not surprising that £92 million of that shortfall will be in this area.

“Additional government funding for social care is entirely inadequate for the scale of the challenge we face.”

And the authority was now faced with higher bills, through having to pay for fees which Cllr Martin described as the ‘true cost of care’.

The Labour-run administration clashed with opposition Tories after external consultants were drafted in to suggest ways of reducing the adult social care bill.