The NHS is not free to everyone, it is free at the point of need. It costs everyone money and it supports people throughout all their life
Social care is a different demographic. We are an aging population due to extended lifespans and lower chidbirth rates. It should not be funded in the same way. If general taxation is to be the model, it will be forever a cash strapped area dependant on the government of the day and will become un-affordable within a generation without huge rises in tax from all stratums of society.
It is better that people have that money to use, buy things, save during their lifetime and then when they die, some of that returns to the providers of the service as payment.
Like has already been said, if you're going to have a death tax shouldn't it be a % of your estate, rather than having fixed costs to all?
The figure of 15% was used earlier, which sounds reasonable.
The trouble is, the way the Tories are seeking to implement this, it could be a >50% tax on people with a £230k house (ie average). And there is talk of care providers seeing this as an opportunity to increase care costs, too.
Lastly, it's sad that social care is just another profit-making industry now :/ In your final days you will be "looked after" as cheaply as possible, for the greatest possible financial reward for shareholders.
There are so many things wrong with this country. Basic necessities such as housing are a profit-making vehicle for the well-off. Social care is a profit-making exercise for private firms. How long before the NHS follows suit in its entirety.
Not only do Labour need to scrap the Tory plans, but they need to reverse this country's ultra-capitalist direction. We should not all have $$$ floating above our heads and be of no other value in the eyes of the government.
I'm not sure how the Scandinavian countries, and other European countries, manage to be socially responsible and pay for it all. Yet we in this country seem to be constantly telling the electorate that there "is no money for social care", is no money for this, that, the other.
And yet we're the 6th biggest economy in the world? What that tells me is that we're failing to curb the excesses of wealth and greed, and that our society is run only for the benefit of the few.
I guess that turned into a rant. Sorry.
