The over-40s should pay a 'social care premium'
 

The over-40s should pay a 'social care premium' tax to pay for care

A cross-party group says the current system is "unsustainable" with billions of pounds of extra funding needed.

https://news.sky.com/story/the-over-...-care-11418170

A joint report from the housing, communities and local government and health and social care committees says the "social care premium" would help address the problem of an "unsustainable" system.

It says the money raised would be held in a dedicated and audited fund to reassure the public it would only be used to provide social care.

Payments would start at the age of 40 and extend beyond 65, but a minimum earnings threshold should be considered to protect those on low incomes.

Re: The over-40s should pay a 'social care premium'
 

"Social Care" also includes "Social Housing" where rents have been outstripping inflation for many years, to "bring parity between social and private rents".

Re: The over-40s should pay a 'social care premium'
 

I think every one should pay not just target a select age related group of people. I'm not sure why they suggested starting at 40

Re: The over-40s should pay a 'social care premium'
 

Social care is a slowly unfolding disaster we need to address. It's at least in part the cause of what's happening with the NHS as it becomes the safety net for the collapse of the other safety net.

It's going to have to be a tax rise such as the idea of taxing inheritance to pay for the care received.

Re: The over-40s should pay a 'social care premium'
 

We actually need to study how we spend taxpayers' money now. There is so much waste. Let's see how much we can save by that method before we start going on about raising taxes.

Let's start with overseas aid.....:Yes:

Re: The over-40s should pay a 'social care premium'
 

I don't have an issue with this, as such... but a) I'd want to be sure they weren't suddenly going to move the goal posts again - "yes, you've paid all this extra tax, but we still don't have enough, so because you have some money saved, you need to pay for it all...." and b) I noticed this "They also suggested the money raised could be used to support the care system for younger adults with disabilities, which forms part of the wider social care system." - if that's the case then everyone should pay it - if it affects everyone, then everyone should pay

Re: The over-40s should pay a 'social care premium'
 

Ring fenced taxes don't stay ring fenced for long especially if there's a surplus.

The treasury prefers to have all the taxes, duties and NI poured into one pot and then doled out as political demands deem it.

Re: The over-40s should pay a 'social care premium'
 

Also it can end up meaning nothing anyway since they can just reduce the portion of the main budget to something like the NHS anyway.

Re: The over-40s should pay a 'social care premium'
 

The tax rise is the easy option. I prefer to stand back, stop non-essential spending and then make a decision on how to spend the money you've saved. Taxing people into oblivion drives the wealthier overseas, which means that those remaining pay more still.

Re: The over-40s should pay a 'social care premium'
 

What would you define as non-essential spending? - you mentioned foreign aid above - what else?

Re: The over-40s should pay a 'social care premium'
 

Too much to list on here. There needs to be a line-by-line approach to budgets in every government department. The amount of waste and even simply unnecessary expenditure is staggering.

Once that exercise is completed, the government could then turn its attention to making our services fit for the current century. Merging adult social care and NHS care has already started, but using technology to treat more people at home using new technology rather than take up hospital beds is one example of how billions could be saved.

Re: The over-40s should pay a 'social care premium'
 

You don't have to list them all - just some. I'm interested to know what you think of as non-essential.


I agree that there is massive waste, and poor budgeting within government organisations.

Re: The over-40s should pay a 'social care premium'
 

Non essential simply means not spending on things the country doesn't need.

You may think this is very vague, but the council I worked for until recently managed to save absolutely millions by this method, and then investing it in transformed services - getting more for less, in the end.

Although it has always been my view that this was the way an organisation should manage its finances, even I was shocked at the changes we were able to make.

Government finances need a dose of this discipline. At government level, the savings and benefits would be monumental.

Re: The over-40s should pay a 'social care premium'
 

You're still not answering the question.
I'm asking for a few examples - it's not a trick question. I'm just asking what you see as non-essential.

Re: The over-40s should pay a 'social care premium'
 

No, a better idea. Let's start with the missing off-shored tax revenues and fiddled corporation taxes.