PM summons spirit of Churchill to hint at social care reforms
BORIS JOHNSON has given his first clear hint that social care will be funded through a form of national insurance as he said the “magic of averages” would solve the problem.
The Prime Minister deliberately chose a phrase coined by his idol Winston Churchill, who used it when talking about welfare taxes, to point the way forward.
He promised to “fix the injustice of care home funding” as he said coronavirus had “shone a spotlight” on the problems care homes face.
In his speech to the Conservative Party conference, Mr Johnson used another Second World War analogy as he said Britain should now, as then, strive to build a “new Jerusalem” as it emerges from a crisis.
He said it was “not good enough” to merely restore the 2019 status quo and instead Covid should be used as an opportunity to reshape the economy for the better.
Mr Johnson announced new plans for one-to- one teaching for “exceptional” children, and confirmed a target for every home in the country to be powered by wind farms by 2030.
Conservative plans for a new social care funding model have been repeatedly delayed both under Mr Johnson and Theresa May, but Mr Johnson’s comments suggest an announcement could now be close.
He said: “We will fix the injustice of care home funding, bringing the magic of averages to the rescue of millions.” Churchill first spoke of the “magic of averages” being used to help “millions” in 1911 when he introduced the concept of national insurance.
In July, Sir Andrew Dilnot, the economist who was commissioned by David Cameron to suggest a new model for social care funding, also used the phrase when he urged the Prime Minister to take inspiration from Churchill and reform social care.
He said at the time: “It’s well known that Boris Johnson has a high regard for Winston Churchill, and one of his great contributions was to get social insurance going.
“He used the great phrase about the magic of averages in 1911 and again during the war in 1943, and what it means is that risk pooling is a great thing.” Sir Andrew recommends a lifetime cap on care costs of £45,000, together with an £8,000 per year cap on the “hotel costs” of living in a care home.
The remainder would be paid for by the state.
At present elderly people needing care must pay for it themselves until the value of their assets – including their house – falls below £23,250, meaning there is no upper limit on how much they must pay.
Downing Street declined to comment on Mr Johnson’s use of the phrase, but sources close to the Prime Minister
confirmed that he was fully aware of how the phrase would be construed.
Mr Johnson added: “Covid has shone a spotlight on the difficulties of that sector in all parts of the UK – and to build back better we must respond, care for the carers as they care for us.”
Options that have been considered by the Government include a ring-fenced social care tax, which would sit alongside the national insurance system that funds the NHS. Opinion polls suggest the public would be broadly supportive of such a measure. Another possibility is a form of compulsory private social care insurance, which the public would have to pay into.
Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, is understood to be an advocate of charging over-40s through one system or another in order to avoid loading a greater tax burden on the young.
Successive governments have shied away from trying to fix social care funding. Theresa May’s attempt to even out the burden by making people receiving care at home pay was attacked as a “dementia tax”. Mrs May dropped the policy and a Green Paper on funding social care has been promised for years without ever seeing the light of day.
Sir Andrew has argued that the problem over social care funding historically arose because of the explosion in the elderly population since the NHS was founded in 1948.