Dementia tax: Tory MPs urged to back Labour push to scrap policy
Just in case you thought our old friend the “dementia tax” was on the back burner….
The shadow social care minister has called on Conservative MPs to renounce the so-called “dementia tax”, proposed in the party’s election manifesto, before a debate in parliament on the social care crisis.
The Labour party will hold an opposition day debate on Wednesday which will include a vote on ditching the Conservative manifesto proposal, which would leave people with a maximum of £100,000 of assets after care costs.
Tory MPs described the plans as deeply unpopular on the doorsteps and the proposals were widely considered to have been dropped after the election result. However, the junior health minister Jackie Doyle-Price recently resurrected the idea of asking people to contribute more to the cost of care, saying people’s homes should not be seen “as an asset to give to their offspring”.
The shadow social care minister, Barbara Keeley, said the party would call on the government in the debate on Wednesday to confirm it did not plan to proceed with the dementia tax when it publishes a green paper on social care next year.
“There has been a deafening silence since the general election but we cannot have that,” she said. “People are unhappy, unsettled and extremely worried that this is coming round the corner. They don’t know what they can afford, they don’t know what they can save and they need certainty as they look forward, and that goes for older people and working people.”