National Insurance

I think this is a really interesting proposal. Many people who have made provision for their old age, many in rural areas, feel very challenged by the need for their modest savings to disproportionately support the cost of their care, just because they fall the wrong side of what can be seen to be an arbitrary line. This would address that challenge to a degree at least. Putting the cost of such an innovation on National Insurance however would have the unintended consequence of disincentivising small rural businesses to employ people. In this case, as with a number of others I am led to ponder why never raising income tax (which is the other option posited here) should be such a sacred cow? 

Older people should receive free help to eat, wash and get dressed in a move which would improve their health but need to be funded by a 2p tax rise, a thinktank has said.

The proposal, by the left-of-centre Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), highlights the growing political consensus that personal care should become free for over-65s. If implemented, it would bring England into line with Scotland, where such care has been free since 2002.

The IPPR argues that the key principle underlying access to the NHS – free care at the point of need – should be extended to this element of social care services in England.

Doing so would remove what critics say is a deeply unfair system in which more and more people of pensionable age are having to use their savings to pay for care received at home that is vital to their independence.

The switch would cost an extra £8bn a year by 2030 but could be paid for by raising income tax by 2p or National Insurance by 1.3p, according to calculations in a new IPPR report.

The NHS would save £4.5bn a year by 2030 because older people would be in better health as a result of improved support at home and so would end up in hospital less, it says. Cuts to local council budgets since 2010 have contributed to hospitals becoming routinely full all year round.