10,000 will still pay for care from life savings after NI hike

MORE than 10,000 people will use up their life savings or sell their homes to pay for social care before Boris Johnson’s new cap on care costs is implemented, new analysis reveals.

Presently more than 400 people per month, or 13 people per day, are reaching the savings “floor” of £23,250 below which the state pays for their care.

Despite a 1.25 per cent National Insurance hike hitting workers and employers from next April, Mr John- son’s £86,000 cap on care costs will not come in until October 2023.

Projections based on NHS figures show 10,450 adults in England will use their life savings, or sell their homes, or both, to pay for social care before then.

Critics said the data showed that Mr Johnson had increased taxes on work- ing families to pay for a policy that did not prevent the vulnerable having to sell their homes.

The same figures, published in NHS Digital’s adult social care activity and finance reports, show that 11,500 adults in England will have used up their savings or sold their homes in the two years it took Mr Johnson to reveal his social care plan, despite insisting he had one ready on his first day as Prime Minister.

The tax hike, which breaks one of the Tories’ key manifesto pledges, has faced criticism from Conservative MPS, dozens of whom voted against the policy or abstained when it was put to the Commons this week.

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health and social care secretary, said: “[This] punishing, unfair tax rise won’t fix social care.”

£86,000 Cap on care costs set by Boris Johnson’s Government from Oct 2023 after the 1.25pc increase in National Insurance