Social care leaders have warned that the Budget will cause "catastrophic unintended consequences" for hospitals in North Wales.

Care Forum Wales (CFW), which represents more than 400 private and charity social care providers, issued the warning as it launched its new campaign, Save Social Care, Save the NHS.

According to CFW, increases in employers’ National Insurance Contribution (NIC) and the rise in the Real Living Wage will create a £40 million funding deficit in North Wales and a £150 million gap across the country.

Without emergency financial support or an NHS-style exemption from the increases, care homes and domiciliary care companies could collapse.

This would leave vulnerable people without support and place additional pressure on hospitals, which are already struggling.

CFW chair Mario Kreft MBE has outlined the organisation’s concerns in a letter to Welsh MPs, Senedd members, First Minister Eluned Morgan and Health Minister Jeremy Miles.

A similar letter has been sent to Prime Minister Kier Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Mr Kreft said: "We have more than 400 members across the private and third sectors and they have reached out to us in alarm about the measures contained in the Budget."

He added: "Since 2020, 40 Welsh care homes have closed and if more of them are forced out of business, this will also place an additional burden on our hospitals which are already struggling to cope even before the onslaught of the added winter pressures."

The Five Nations Group, which represents care organisations from across the UK and Eire, is backing the campaign.

They agree that third sector providers, including charities and hospices, will also be put at risk by the Budget measures.

Mr Kreft continued: "The combination of changes to NICs and increases in National Minimum and National Living Wages in the UK Budget represents a huge amount of unfunded extra cost that will affect all providers in a sector where staffing costs make up between 65 per cent and 80 per cent of total expenditure."

He said that the changes would impose significant extra costs on providers, with average size care homes facing tens of thousands of pounds of extra costs, and larger care homes facing bills amounting to hundreds of thousands.

One of CFW's third sector members has calculated that the changes will cost them more than £1 million.

He added: "The respected think tank, the Nuffield Trust, say the measures contained in the UK Budget could see 'swathes of the social care market collapsing under these extra cost pressures'."

He said that many businesses, especially smaller ones, are at risk of going out of business, disrupting or ending vital care for many older and disabled people.

He also highlighted concerns about the potential impact of the changes in Inheritance Tax on the care home market, given the large number of family run small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and how this could affect continuity in the sector.

Mr Kreft concluded: "The former First Minister, Mark Drakeford, described social care as the ‘scaffold that holds up the NHS’ and losing care settings would be a disaster, not just for the vulnerable individuals for whom we care and our dedicated workforce, but also for hospitals across Wales."