The over-50s ‘could pay £300 extra NI to cover care’
OVER-50s could be forced to pay £ 300 extra on their National Insurance to help fund social care, Theresa May’s former deputy has proposed in a new report.
As well as the surcharge, Tory MP Damian Green said pensioners must consider giving up some of their housing wealth if they want top-quality care in old age.
He called for a radical overhaul of England’s broken social care system to run it along the same lines as pensions. Under his proposals, everyone would receive a basic level of statefunded social care just as they are given a basic state pension.
But if they want better care – such as bigger rooms in a care home, better food and more trips out – they should pay extra from their savings or their housing wealth.
His plans come despite the Tories being forced into a humiliating U-turn on the socalled ‘ dementia tax’ during the 2017 general election.
The manifesto pledge – where tens of thousands of people who receive care at home would have faced costly bills as they grew older – was regarded as a key reason the party did not win a majority.
Mr Green’s system, which would be comparable to private pensions, could give people the option of paying a lump sum of between £10,000 and £30,000 on retirement for the promise of better care if they end up needing it.
The former minister also suggested – as a last resort – charging all over-50s a one per cent surcharge on National Insurance to pay the bill.
This would mean an extra £308 a year for the average taxpayer between 50 and 64, and would raise £2.4billion.
Money for social care could also be raised by taxing the winter fuel allowance.
The radical proposals, drawn up by the Tory MP in a paper for the Centre for Policy Studies think-tank, come as the country waits for the Government’s much- delayed social care green paper.
Mr Green, chairman of the
‘Acute problems for the NHS’
Commons all-party group on longevity, had been tasked with tackling social care reform before he was forced to resign over a year ago.
He said: ‘The crisis in our social care system is one of the most pressing issues our country currently faces.
‘It causes acute problems for the wider NHS, with 1.98 million delayed transfers in 2017/18 for those moving out of NHS care. I propose a wholesale change in our approach to social care, mirroring the state pension system, with the introduction of a “universal care entitlement” and a “care supplement”.
‘By combining this new system with an increase in funding, we will be able to tackle this most intractable of political dilemmas fairly and responsibly.’
At present, people have to pay the full cost of their care – right down to their final £23,000. The money can be taken from the value of their home, denying their children an inheritance.
Eight years ago a review suggested that the state should impose a cap on the amount people have to pay, with the state stepping in to pay the rest. The cap has not yet been implemented – and in Mr Green’s proposals, there is no place for such a cap.
He said the current system was financially and politically unsustainable, opaque, unfair, and discourages local councils from investing in social care and housing for older people.
With the number of over-75s set to double from the current 5.3 million in the next 40 years, he said the need to address the problem was moving from ‘urgent to critical’.
Mr Green said under his plans, no one would be forced to sell their own home. It would also increase the supply of care beds.
Robert Colville, director of the Centre for Policy Studies, said: ‘ Damian’s proposals would pass all the key tests – the system would be sustainable, there would be protection against the dementia lottery, no one would have to sell their own homes.’