One of the country’s biggest social care charities has spent about £1m from its reserves so far this year to cover Covid-19 absences.
Community Integrated Care said it had been forced to fund growing levels of sick pay from its reserves since the government closed a scheme that covered those costs.
CIC warned that other charities were also using their savings or taking on debt to fund sickness payments for staff.
Health rules in England mean care workers must test for Covid-19 infections twice a week and cannot come to work if they test positive. The government’s Infection Control Fund, which spent £1.4bn on helping care providers meet sick pay and other Covid-19-related costs, closed in April.
CIC said it had incurred the costs because 2,500 members of its staff – almost 50 per cent of its employees – had taken time off with Covid-19 in the past six months.
The organisation said social care charities and other providers face “real financial peril” as a result and has called on the government to reinstate the Infection Control Fund.
Since the fund closed, “most of the cost of sick pay has been met from the charity’s reserves at a cost of almost £1m”, CIC said.
Teresa Exelby, chief people officer at the charity, said the current situation was “flawed and dangerous”.
She said: “Care providers are faced with a catch-22 of either picking up the tab for sick pay, which means cuts to vital services and investments, raiding limited financial reserves or seeing their workforce live on the minimal allowance of Statutory Sick Pay.
“This enforced absence is not a small cost to bear. In our charity alone, the average cost of Covid-19-related sick pay has been around £150,000 per month since March.”
CIC ended the year to March 2021 with an income of £142.2m and free reserves of £5.6m, according to its most recent filings with the Charity Commission.
On Monday, Care England, the sector’s umbrella body, warned that social care charities faced “unsustainable” staff shortages.
The Orders of St John Care Trust, another major social care charity, said earlier this month that its staff turnover was 41 per cent last year.