Boris Johnson plans to fund social care with a National Insurance grab – 11 frank reactions
It’s more than two years since the newly elected PM, Boris Johnson, assured the nation that a solution to the chaos of social care was on the way.
“I am announcing now – on the steps of Downing Street – that we will fix the crisis in social care once and for all with a clear plan we have prepared to give every older person the dignity and security they deserve.”
It must have been in the same file as his oven-ready Brexit plan, because his latest move appears to be a hastily cobbled-together scheme to push up National Insurance contributions, in order to both ‘fix’ social care and to plug a huge gap in NHS running costs.
BREAKING: Boris Johnson is expected to raise national insurance by about 1.2% to pay for a pledge to end the "catastrophic costs" of social care, a move Tory MPs claim amounts to a £10bn tax raid.
Sky's @BethRigby has the latest.
Read more here: https://t.co/tFIjPffA23 pic.twitter.com/BLxSbdlQT4
— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 6, 2021
Opposition parties, Conservative backbenchers and representatives of businesses and workers have complained that this tax grab would unfairly target the young, low earners and struggling companies
Levelling up:
Millionaires cutting £20 a week from the poorest in the country and getting the less well-off to pay for social care while the wealthy retired don’t have to.
— David Schneider (@davidschneider) September 6, 2021
People have also been questioning why this badly timed rise in living costs needs to happen at all, given a certain promise that was made a few years ago.
Surely we can just use this money instead of raising taxes?
#tax#BorisTheLiar #BrexitShambles #BrexitDisaster pic.twitter.com/JbnYS5CsD4
— Sarah Jane Routledge #BLM (@sazzamaroo) September 6, 2021
In short, the plan has gone down like a mask mandate at Laurence Fox’s birthday party. Here’s what people have been saying.
1.
UK STATUS:
NOBODY MENTION THE £350M QUID NHS BUS.
YOU DIDN'T SEE THE £350M QUID NHS BUS.
THE £350M QUID NHS BUS WAS JUST OUR LITTLE JOKE.
CAN'T YOU TAKE A JOKE?
HAHAHA.
NOW PAY UP.
POOREST FIRST.— Stephen McGann💙 (@StephenMcGann) September 6, 2021
2.
TOMORROW: Remember when we were going to fund the NHS by leaving the EU. pic.twitter.com/L1dNsm7Gkm
— The DM Reporter (@DMReporter) September 6, 2021
3.
In his personal life, Johnson’s main tactic seems to have been to get Tory donors to pay for things. So why doesn’t he just extend that philosophy to social care?
— Keith Burge (@carryonkeith) September 6, 2021
4.
Own up….. who stole the £600 million a week that was supposed to be for the NHS? pic.twitter.com/EA8t52qdDa
— Jason J Hunter (Not a noble Lord) (@JJHTweets) September 6, 2021
5.
Remember when Boris Johnson said that, if we did Brexit, we'd save £18 billion that he would spend on the NHS instead?
Good times.#Newsnight pic.twitter.com/xGRHNlI57V
— I Am Incorrigible FCA (@ImIncorrigible) September 6, 2021
6.
BREAKING: Downing Street denies social care plans are so chaotic they're in danger of being labelled "oven-ready".
— Have I Got News For You (@haveigotnews) September 6, 2021
7.
Tories have somehow managed to convince voters that state services can only be funded by either taxing workers or slashing benefits. They must be absolutely laughing to the bank
— Sam Bright (@WritesBright) September 6, 2021
8.
can I ask my employer to pay me in huel gift cards to get around this tax increase? https://t.co/XVuAYjHr2D
— hammy. (@iamhamesh) September 6, 2021
9.
National insurance, unlike income tax, isn't paid on unearned income. Raising national insurance, rather than income tax, is a choice to favour people who don't have to work for a living.
— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) September 4, 2021
10.
A tax hike on National Insurance hey. A tax that people stop paying at 65. Wonder why Boris Johnson is doing that. pic.twitter.com/nrvbfChnNW
— Otto English (@Otto_English) September 3, 2021
11.
Boris Johnson’s social care plan looks every bit as well planned and thought through as his Brexit plan
— dave ❄️ 🥕 🧻 (@davemacladd) September 6, 2021
It’s almost as though …
starting to think that Boris Johnson hadn’t actually prepared a clear plan to fix social care in 2019
— Henry Mance (@henrymance) September 5, 2021
Surely not.
READ MORE
Boris Johnson said people should get money from work not welfare – and everyone’s irony meters broke
Source Sky News and Twitter Image Screengrab, Danie Franco on Unsplash