Tax hike planned to fund social care
BRITISH prime minister Boris Johnson set out plans on Tuesday (7) to raise taxes on workers, employers and some investors to try to fix the health and social care system, angering some in his party for breaking an election promise. After spending huge amounts of money to fight the
pandemic, Johnson is returning to an early pledge to address Britain’s creaking social care system, where costs are projected to double as the population ages over the next two decades.
He also moved to try to tackle a backlog in the NHS, which has seen millions waiting months for treatment, after resources were refocused to deal with those suffering from the novel coronavirus.
Ignoring loud disquiet in his party, Johnson outlined what he described as a new health and social care levy, which will see a rise in the rate of National Insurance payroll taxes paid by both workers and employers by 1.25 percentage points each and the same increase to the tax on shareholder dividends.
“It would be wrong for me to say that we can pay for this recovery without taking the difficult but responsible decisions about how we
finance it,” Johnson told parliament. “It would be irresponsible to meet the costs from higher borrowing and higher debt.”
On Monday (6), the government announced £5.4 billion in extra funding for the NHS to treat virus cases and clear a massive backlog in routine operations. Johnson and health secretary Sajid Javid said the extra cash, to be handed out over the next six months, would help “manage the immediate pressures of the pandemic”.
The largest part of the extra funding, £2.8 billion is allocated to virusrelated costs such as enhanced infection control measures, the government said, while £1 billion will help tackle the backlog in other treatment and operations.
Javid said the waiting lists would get worse before they get better due to more people coming forward for treatment following relaxation of virus restrictions.