Backlash over ‘dementia tax’
Electionrevealscareconundrum
THE WORK and Pensions Secretary could not have been clearer when asked if the Tories will drop the controversial care reforms – dubbed the ‘dementia tax’ – which have been greeted with so much hostility.
“No,” said Damian Green before pointing out that the Conservatives intend, if reelected, to publish separate Green Papers this summer on the inter-related subjects of elderly care and the NHS because of the prevailing need for a closer alignment when it comes to the provision of services.
Unlike Labour which does not expect to be elected in spite of the party’s increased support in the latest opinion polls, Mr Green, a close confidante of Theresa May, realises that it will almost certainly fall to his party to come up with a long-term funding formula that takes account of Britain’s ageing society and increasing number of people struck down with dementia and other debilitating conditions.
It’s a task made more difficult by previous party leaders effectively ‘bribing’ pensioners, the demographic most assiduous when it comes to voting, with policies like the winter fuel discount.
Yet, as politics is turned on its head, it is the Tories, the supposed party of the rich, who are proposing to deny this allowance to wealthier OAPs while Labour, which prides itself on speaking up for the poor, will allow all senior citizens – including multimillionaires – to receive this entitlement.
This is one area where some specifics from the Conservatives might be helpful – the lack of costings in a manifesto, and some of the logic behind the ‘dementia tax’, is providing Jeremy Corbyn with an electoral gift that he has not earned.
After all, the best insurance policy of all is a strong economy and Mr Corbyn’s wishlist, however appealing, will – in all likelihood – lead to entrepreneurs and wealthcreators shunning Britain in significant numbers.
This is still Mrs May’s election to lose – despite the fact that a poll triggered by Brexit has turned into a debate on domestic policy. Yet, in many respects, she deserves credit for being prepared to think the unthinkable during an election campaign and warn the country about the bitter pills that will need to be swallowed over care costs. How ironic that such frankness, at a time when the public are intolerant of politicians who break their promises, could backfire.