Yesterday’s Health and Social Care Levy is a manifesto-breaking, economically damaging, unfair tax on jobs. This is the biggest rise in taxes on families for over 50 years, with no thought to the impact on those earning the least.

Even the Conservative attempt to make their tax rise fairer has fallen at the first hurdle – with just £600m of the £12bn annual total being levied on profits from dividends.

Hardworking families are left to shoulder the vast majority of the burden, paying 20 times this amount.

Under the Prime Minister’s plan many people will still have to sell their homes to afford the cost of care. For example, someone with £186k in assets including their home facing large costs because they have to go into care, would have to pay £86k. And that’s before living costs.

The Government can’t even say when and if they can clear the NHS backlog – which means we won’t know when this money will even be spent on social care.

Not only that, but this is the third tax rise on working families from the Conservatives in recent months, and we are soon to be faced with a hat trick of broken manifesto promises from them. You can’t trust a word they say.

The Conservatives proposals will also do nothing to fix the social care crisis, missing the long-term plan of reform and investment our NHS and social care system needs.

This is a government that has underfunded and weakened the NHS and social care for a decade before the pandemic.

The same is true of social care – £8 billion cut despite growing demand, with carers on poverty wages, without secure contracts, and over 100,000 vacancies.  More than 32,000 care home residents died from Covid.

This is problem that needs fixing now, with a solution that’s fit for the future. That’s why we’re offering to work with the Conservatives to develop a comprehensive, long-term plan to fix social care.

We’re honest that this additional investment would need to be paid for through additional tax rises, but increasing National Insurance contributions isn’t right way to do it, hitting working people – especially low earners and young people – and businesses hard.

We’re clear that the wealthiest should be asked to contribute more, that taxes to pay for social care should be fair across the generations, and that all forms of income are considered – including shares, dividends and property. 

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