Care news

• Labour must seize the initiative on social care | Letters

  10-09-2021 17:40
  
  Social care should be fully returned to the public sector, writes David Hinchliffe, while Pam Clarke says privatisation has been a failed experiment and Roger Fisken says Labour should defend high taxes for decent public service provisionYour editorial concerning Boris Johnson’s announcement on health and social care funding (7 September) rightly draws attention to the detrimental effects of the organisational split between two branches of the same tree. The ludicrous situation of having f
  
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• Johnson is parking Tory tanks on Labour’s lawn – but Starmer can fight back | Jonathan Freedland

  10-09-2021 17:40
  
  The prime minister promises to ‘level up’, yet his policies will level down. That gives the opposition a chance they should seizeWhat do you do when your sworn enemy insists on wearing your clothes? The question looms large after a week when Boris Johnson once again dressed himself up in deepest red, introducing a new tax that aims to raise £12bn a year to tackle the NHS backlog and fix social care, the sort of high-tax, high-spend move that was once anathema to the Conservativ
  
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• ‘Cruel’ legal change affects children in care | Letters

  10-09-2021 17:39
  
  New legislation that rations care on the basis of age will hit some children hard, say Carolyne Willow, David Graham and Isabelle KirkhamThe existence of adult social care waiting lists is deeply shocking (Nearly 300,000 on adult social care ‘waiting lists’ in England, 8 September). Children’s social care has also taken a terrible turn this week.New legislation has come into force which rations care on the basis of age. The law now requires that children in care always receive
  
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• Johnson avoided mass rebellion over tax rise, but anger is growing

  10-09-2021 16:49
  
  Analysis: As ‘red wall’ Tories fear unfair impact of NIC rise, No 10 knows social care battle is not yet overFor months, Boris Johnson’s plan to deliver on a pledge to solve the social care crisis was shrouded in secrecy: names were added one by one to a list held by the cabinet secretary of those brought in to develop parts of the policy so that in the event of a leak inquiry, he knew – in the words of one insider – “who to pin against the wall”.Even th
  
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• There’s a Tory backlash to Johnson’s tax rise – and he’s got more trouble on the horizon | Katy Balls

  10-09-2021 16:00
  
  Supporters back the prime minister because he’s seen as a winner. But what happens if that perception changes?Boris Johnson’s taxation plans may have sailed through the Commons, but that doesn’t mean they’re sitting well with his party. Instead, the prime minister’s push to define a new centre ground has put him at loggerheads with some of his oldest supporters. The politician they had put their faith in to usher in a new era of free market conservatism is treading
  
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• Yorkshire care home resident, 100, pleads for end to Covid isolation

  10-09-2021 12:22
  
  Frances Heaton says90,000 people can gather at Leeds Festival but only one of her children can visit herCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageA 100-year-old care home resident has issued a video plea for greater freedom, complaining that thousands of people can go to pop festivals but she is being prevented from seeing two of her children at her home in Yorkshire.Frances Heaton said “human rights and equality are out of order altogether”, as 240,000 people
  
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• Johnson’s tax raid on workers should be a gift to Labour | Owen Jones

  10-09-2021 12:00
  
  If Keir Starmer fails to put forward a credible alternative, Labour risks letting a scandal-ridden government off the hookThe national insurance hike to fund social care should have been a major political victory for Labour, personally gift wrapped by Boris Johnson. The policy amounts to a raid on the living standards of workers, whose wages have already been squeezed, to ensure “the children of Surrey homeowners can receive bigger inheritances”, as an unnamed cabinet minister eloque
  
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• Social care: cap could prompt insurers to plug nursing home costs gap

  10-09-2021 08:00
  
  Insurance companies withdrew policies more than a decade ago – but they could return under new plansThe cap on the cost of social care could create a new market in insurance to cover nursing home fees – 11 years after the last policy was withdrawn from the market.This week’s shake-up of how adult social care is funded has renewed discussion about how families meet any costs above the government cap.Continue reading...
  
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• If national insurance must fund social care, at least make it fair

  10-09-2021 07:00
  
  Analysis: the government could generate an extra $20bn by reforming national insurance to tax high earnersThe government could generate almost double the £12bn it expects to raise for health and social care if the national insurance system was made fairer, according to a group of economists.Ministers could fix the system to make higher earners pay the 12% standard rate, handing the Treasury £20bn of extra revenue, according to a team from the London School of Economics and Warwick Un
  
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• ‘How is it fair?’: relatives of social care users on the PM’s funding plan

  10-09-2021 07:00
  
  Three family members whose loved ones have entered care still see inequality in the systemThe prime minister, Boris Johnson, has announced plans to finance adult social care through tax changes. Under the proposals, individuals will pay a maximum of £86,000 towards their social care over their lifetime. Those with assets of between £20,000 and £100,000 will receive more means-tested support.Three people share their views on the proposals, and speak about their own experiences o
  
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• Johnson’s hopes of banishing NHS backlog likely to remain wishful thinking

  10-09-2021 01:01
  
  Analysis: Persistent understaffing and ageing estate means drive to slash waiting lists will be very hard to achieveEvery day brings reminders of how permanently under-resourced the NHS is: a ward closing here because there are too few nurses, a queue of ambulances – each with a patient in the back – stuck outside an overstretched A&E there.On Thursday it was Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. Health services are under such pressure in the area that its hospitals and NHS clinical co
  
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