Attack ads target Boris
He launches web blitz against £350m NHS pledge – and lays out new social care blueprint
JEREMY Hunt yesterday launched adverts that attacked Boris Johnson over his controversial suggestion that Brexit could mean an extra £350million for the NHS.
The Foreign Secretary laid out his own plan to ‘save’ the social care system in England, saying he wanted a new deal for the elderly – with money taken automatically out of workers’ pay packets to pay for their care needs in old age.
He pledged that their care costs would be capped in return, ending the crippling charges many face at present.
And Mr Hunt, a former health secretary, promised new tax breaks for families who want to care for elderly relatives.
It came as his campaign team brought out an internet advertisement attacking Mr Johnson as untrustworthy. The advert states: ‘Who do you trust to deliver for Britain? The man who put £350million for the NHS on a bus? Or the man who actually delivered it? With a record of delivery, it #HasToBeHunt.’
Mr Johnson has faced criticism over the Vote Leave campaign bus in the EU referendum campaign, which featured the slogan, ‘We send the EU £350million a week, let’s fund our NHS instead’. He saw off a legal challenge from a Remain-supporting activist who sought to bring a private prosecution for misconduct in a public office over claims that this was a lie.
Mr Hunt last night laid out his own four-point plan ‘to save the social care system and guarantee dignity and respect for every elderly person’. He said he would also review the tax system to introduce new financial support for families who wish to offer more care for their elderly relatives, such as new tax breaks for home adaptations and extensions.
The Foreign Secretary pledged a ten-year funding plan for the social care system. He said he wanted to see the full integration of health and social care services across the country.
Under England’s current broken care system, people have to use their savings – including housing wealth – down to their last £23,250.
In Scotland, councils are required to provide free personal care to everyone aged 65 and above, which can be provided in their home or in residential care facilities. However, Scots with £26,250 in assets, including their house, are required to be ‘self-funders’, who pay for the remaining costs of staying in a care home.
Even when they receive the free personal and nursing care payments, the annual cost of this still stands at more than £16,000.
Mr Hunt said he would bring in an auto
enrolment scheme similar to the way employees are encouraged to pay into workplace pensions. The payslip deductions would be paid to insurance firms to cover care home and home help costs after retirement.
Workers would be able to opt out of the scheme. Mr Hunt said it would mean an end to the sky-high care costs that can deny children much of their inheritance, as deductions would go towards an insurance scheme.
He said: ‘Britain is known throughout the world for its compassion and decency, and I want to lead a government that walks the talk on that. That’s why guaranteeing older people dignity and respect in their final years is unfinished business for me.
‘The level of loneliness and isolation amongst old people across this country is nothing short of a national scandal. I want to bring health and social care together, and back those unsung heroes caring for their own family members for free. Others campaigned for £350million a week for the NHS, but I actually delivered it, and I will deliver for our elderly generation too.’
The Government was accused of betrayal four years ago after it reneged on a pledge to bring in a £72,000 cap on the amount people in England have to pay towards their care costs by 2016, moving it back to April 2020.
Mr Hunt also said he wanted the rules changed so foreign aid money could be used for hurricane relief.
And he waded into the row over the witch-hunt of British troops facing historic allegations of wrongdoing in Northern Ireland. He said it was ‘truly appalling that nearly 40 years on, some of our veterans are being dragged through the courts’.
Mr Hunt suggested he could push for greater protection for troops, noting a review is under way. He pledged to find the ‘right way’ to solve it for ‘brave’ servicemen and women.