Care? This bunch don’t give a damn
Plan stitches up poorer councils
THE half-baked Tory solution to the social care funding crisis will punish the poorest areas where help is most needed, Jeremy Corbyn said yesterday.
He accused ministers of not giving a damn by “passing the buck” and simply hoping council tax rises will somehow help the sick and vulnerable.
The Labour leader said: “Raising council tax has a different outcome in different areas. If you raise the council tax in Windsor and Maidenhead, you get quite a lot of money.
“If you raise it in Liverpool or Newcastle, you get a lot less.”
In well off East Dorset a 6% rise would reap £ 42.77, but in poorer Sunderland it would amount to just £19.72, which would not go nearly far enough to funding the shortfall.
Communities Secretary Sajid Javid will announce today that town halls can raise bills by more than 6% over the next two years to tackle the crisis.
That is on top of former Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement last year that councils could add a 2% “social care precept” to raise £2billion.
Authorities will be able to impose the total 6% rise over two years rather than three, meaning a 3% addition to bills in 2017 and 2018 but 0% in 2019.
Areas where councils impose the maximum hikes could see total bills rising by an inflation-busting 10%, more than £150, in two years. Mr Corbyn urged Prime Mi ni s t e r Theresa May to “get a grip” and scrap a planned 3% tax cut for business instead.
Chief of Multiple sclerosis charity MS Society , Michelle Mitchell said: “It will raise the least amount in areas with the most need.”
But the PM insisted: “We need to make sure that reform is taking place so we see best practice in terms of integration of health and social care
across the country. And the PM’s spokeswoman said: “In order to have a sustainable, long-term solution we would want cross-party support for it.”
LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn nailed Tory neglect of the vulnerable and elderly at Prime Minister’s Questions.
Uninspiring Theresa May had no answers because the care crisis leads directly to Downing Street’s door since the Conservatives have cut a painful £4.6billion from the care budget.
Trying to shift the cost on to councils, particularly in poorer areas, smacks of a PM evading responsibility for a mess of her party’s making.
Building the fairer, decent Britain we want, and the vulnerable and elderly deserve, requires those with the broadest shoulders to carry the greatest burden and that means raising the funds for proper care from all wealthy individuals and corporations accused of dodging tax.
On top of the cuts, Mrs May and the Conservatives scuppered an ambitious Labour plan for a National Care Service, alongside the NHS, for their own political gain.
To be looked after properly when we are disabled or frail is a fundamental human right. We must show we care about care.