PM Must Give Voters A Guarantee Tax Rise Will Be Spent Wisely

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is right to tackle the social care crisis head on by raising National Insurance (NI) by 1.25 per cent to pay for it. For too long, governments have ignored the growing problem but the extra money must be ring-fenced and not just disappear in spiralling NHS costs.

- Tim Newark

People are now living longer, with average life expectancy in our early 80s, a whole decade more than 50 years ago, but that doesn’t mean we’re healthier with an increasing number of us needing social care.

It costs an average £60,000 a year for a care home place and many families have to sell their homes to pay for this. A lifetime cap of £86,000 on care costs will make it more affordable and avoid the dread of families facing runaway bills, or as Boris puts it “the catastrophic fear of losing everything.”

It’s argued that the NI hike will hit younger generations hardest and why should they pay to stop older generations selling their homes?

But longer life expectancy is a challenge we face as a whole society. We will all become older and need social care.

OUR parents worked hard to own their homes and they prefer the idea of passing some of that wealth on to their children rather than seeing it swallowed up in rapacious care fees. Money passed on to younger generations is one of the primary engines of social mobility and to see the state take that back will only increase the gap between rich and poor.