Over-40s could pay new tax to fund social care
THE over-40s could be hit with a new income tax to help ease the crisis in social care funding, it was suggested yesterday.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said he is ‘attracted’ to the plan that would raise billions of pounds a year – but which would leave ministers open to the accusation they were imposing an ‘age tax’.
During last year’s election, Tory proposals to deal with the issue were dubbed a ‘dementia tax’ and blamed for damaging Theresa May’s credibility when she performed a U-turn in the middle of the campaign.
The new tax proposals – which are based on a system in Germany and could cost the average earner about £312 a year – will be set out in a social care green paper due to be published within weeks.
Under the German system, which was introduced about 20 years ago, workers over 40 pay 2.5 per cent of their wages into a social care fund to pay for the cost of care in later life.
Yesterday Mr Hancock told the Sunday Telegraph: ‘One of the reasons I’m attracted to the proposal is that it’s cross party. This is a problem which can only be solved by people coming together behind a solution.’
Dr Sarah Wollaston, chairman of the Commons health committee, which endorsed such a scheme in a report this month, said it would avoid putting an ‘unfair’ burden on ‘young employed adults’.