Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Health cuts by stealth
NHS budget slashed by £2.7bn to pay for rise in pension costs
THE Tories were last night branded spiteful for cynically raiding the NHS budget to pay for a rise in pension costs.
After Theresa May’s boasts about more funding, we can reveal Chancellor Philip Hammond is plotting to slash £2.7billion from the service’s coffers over two years.
It will leave less cash for frontline services already struggling to cope.
The bill could pay for 61,500 nurses, 360,000 hip replacements and around 3.3 million cataract operations during the same period.
Other services including police and schools also face cuts due to rising pension costs.
The Government pledged to cover the cost of the NHS rise from next year, but only until 2020.
Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Peter Dowd said: “Billions of pounds are being quietly cut from our NHS, due to a poisonous cocktail of disastrous economic mismanagement and spiteful behaviour. These cuts are the equivalent of paying the salary of over 61,000 nurses a year.
“Nurses whom we desperately need after eight years of crushing austerity.
“The Chancellor must own up and commit to meeting these extra costs, not just push them on to slashed and struggling public services. All this just goes to show, you cannot trust the Tories with our NHS.”
The shock pension plans were buried in a Treasury statement slipped out three weeks ago. It proposes raising employer contributions from next year for five million public sector workers. And a new House of Commons Library report seen by the Daily Mirror reveals the annual cost will be £1.36billion.
Chief Secretary to the
These cuts could pay for 61,000 nurses, who we need desperately after austerity PETER DOWD SHADOW CHIEF SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY
Treasury Liz Truss said the Government would support employers with costs for 2019/20.
But she ruled out any guarantee that it would cover them in 2020/21 and 2021/22.
That amounts to £2.7billion in the final two years of this parliament before the next general election. Ms Truss said: “Changes will be implemented with effect from April 2019.
“Early indications are the amount employers pay towards the schemes will need to increase.”
The Treasury said: “The Government is committed to public service pensions that are fair to workers and to the taxpayer. The Treasury will support departments with additional funding for any unforeseen costs in 2019/20. Further costs will be a matter for the Spending Review.”
Former Lib Dem pensions minister Sir Steve Webb said: “It suggests the Treasury will effectively be sending a bill to the NHS for £1.36billion in 2019/20 and then refund this.
“But crucially there is no guarantee the Treasury will refund the cost after that. Based on past form, it is likely the Treasury will smuggle this cut through. It would not surprise me at all.”
Sources said the rising costs of public sector pensions are down to longer life expectancy and forecasts for slower economic growth under the Tories. It means lower returns on money put aside now.
The NHS is Britain’s largest public employer. Its budget for 2017/18 is £125billion. Mrs May recently claimed an additional £20billion in real terms will be made available for the service in England by 2023/24.
But it is unclear how much money will be spent on health overall.
Mr Hammond is to give a speech to the Tory conference in Birmingham today where even he will admit austerity has taken its toll on society.
In a rare moment of Conservative honesty over the damage they have caused, he is to tell delegates: “Too many people have experienced years of slow wage growth, felt less secure in their jobs and seen the housing market spiral beyond their reach.”
A coroner is demanding more cash for Birmingham Women’s Hospital after “unsafe levels of staff ” were linked to two-day-old Kiarah Allen’s death.
The premature tot died after an accidental fluid overdose caused by a feeding tube blunder. She is one of three babies whose deaths have been linked to poor care there since 2016.