Tax hike will raise ‘enough money’ to pay for social care reforms – Javid
A plan to hike National Insurance contributions will raise “enough money” to pay for reforms to the care sector in England and is “a very Conservative thing to do”, Sajid Javid has said.
The health secretary told Kay Burley that while “I don’t like raising taxes”, without these changes, NHS waiting lists would have reached 13 million people in three years’ time – the equivalent to one person in every family.
But he later clarified that “no responsible health secretary” could guarantee the money raised will clear the backlog.
Sajid Javid told Sky News that raising NI contributions given the circumstances is ‘a very Conservative thing to do’
It comes as MPs prepare to vote on the biggest tax rise for decades to fund the NHS and social care reforms.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that National Insurance contributions will rise by 1.25 percentage points to pay for the social care system in England in a bid to end the “unpredictable and catastrophic costs” faced by many.
A social care package, which the prime minister has called “the biggest catch-up programme” in the NHS’s history, will be funded through a new, UK-wide ‘health and social care levy’ from April 2022.
The government is confident it will win the vote later on Wednesday, but concerns remain both about how the £12bn will be raised and how much of it will be directed towards the care sector.
Asked if he is sure he is in the right party, as the Conservative 2019 manifesto promised not to increase taxes, Mr Javid told Sky News: “Yes, I am sure of that.
“I think what we have announced in the last 24 hours actually is a very Conservative thing to do.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that National Insurance contributions will rise by 1.25 percentage points to pay for reforms to the social care system in England
“We are committed as a party to the NHS, I want the NHS to be there for everyone – a world class health service free at the point of use paid through general taxation.
“I, as health secretary, when I came into this job a couple of months ago and I was told that the waiting list – already at 5.5 million because of the global pandemic and the pressures that has created – could go to as high as 13 million in three years’ time, I can’t tolerate that, I can’t accept that.
“So something had to be done and I think the British public understand that.
“Similarly, with adult social care, I think the fact that some people have this risk of catastrophic costs of care, that is not acceptable where you have some one in seven people that have to pay over £100,000 for their care.
“And I think it is a very Conservative thing to do to give people that confidence to know that their lifetime cost of care can be capped for them – the plan to cap it at £86,000 I think is the right thing to do to do it properly and sustainably.
“I don’t like raising taxes, I want taxes to be as low as they possibly can be, but I think people understand if we want the NHS to be for us there always, doing its job, then we have got to properly fund that – and the same applies to social care.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Is the social care plan fair or unfair?
Asked if the sum collected from rising National Insurance contributions will raise enough money to fix the current problems in the social care system, the health secretary said: “I think this is enough money.”
Pushed again on whether he can guarantee the money will clear the NHS backlog, he added: “No responsible health secretary can make that kind of guarantee.”
Mr Javid later confirmed that £5.4bn raised by increasing National Insurance payments will go directly to social care.
The new social care plan was signed off by ministers at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning after days of fury from Tory backbenchers.
The 1.25 percentage point increase is expected to raise about £12bn which, in the early years, will mainly be used to fund dealing with the NHS backlog.
This includes £2.2 billion a year for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as tax changes affect the whole of the UK.
The levy will be paid by working adults including those over the state pension age.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
How Boris Johnson broke his tax pledge
Announcing the plans in the Commons, the PM said the costs of the programme will be split between individuals and businesses and “those who earn more will pay more”.
The PM’s plan to overhaul the social care sector includes:
• A government pledge to invest £36 billion over the next three years to help the NHS recover from the pandemic.
• To also invest in reforming the social care sector.
• A promise that from October 2023, nobody will pay more than £86,000 for their social care – regardless of their assets.
• That the government will fully cover the cost of care for those with assets under £20,000, and contribute to the cost of care for those with assets of between £20,000 and £100,000.
Making a statement in the Commons on his new proposal on Tuesday, Mr Johnson said he accepts that the measure breaks a Tory manifesto pledge not to hike National Insurance, but that it was a necessary move due to COVID financial pressures.
Boris Johnson unveiled his social care reform plans in the Commons on Tuesday
“No Conservative government wants to raise taxes, I will be honest I accept this breaks a manifesto commitment. It is not something I do lightly but a global pandemic wasn’t in anyone’s manifesto,” the PM told MPs.
“This is the right the reasonable and the fair approach. I think the people of this country understand that in their bones and they can see the enormous steps that this government and the Treasury have taken.”
The PM also announced that there will be a 1.25% hike in the amount of tax that is paid on income from share dividends to help cover the costs of the social care package.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said those with “the broadest shoulders” need to “pay more”.
Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday, he said: “The alternative is obvious: a timetable, a plan to clear waiting lists just as we did under the last Labour government, a comprehensive report planned for social care dealing with the inadequacies I have just pointed out, and driving up the equality of provision, and not just tinkering with the funding model.
“We do need to ask those with the broadest shoulders to pay more and that does include asking much more of wealthier people including income from stocks, from shares, from dividends and from property.”
A judo Olympian has said her family is “devastated” after the discovery of body in the search for her missing brother.
Lubjana Piovesana, 28, appealed for help to find her younger sibling, Luis, 26, on Saturday. He had not been seen since the early hours of Friday morning.
A body was found in the River Frome near Napier Road in Eastville, Bristol, at around 6pm today, Avon and Somerset Police said.
Formal identification is yet to take place, the force added.
In a post on Instagram, Ms Piovesana wrote: “Hello everyone, Luis has been found.
“We are completely devastated but he has passed away.
“I am grateful for everyone’s support. And I am so sorry this happened.
“Luis was my little brother and loved by everyone. I wish he could have seen the love from everyone. He will be remembered by us all.”
The post was signed off with a dove emoji.
Luis Piovesana did not have any money or his mobile phone with him when he went missing, police said. Pics: Avon & Somerset Police
Mr Piovesana was last seen at around 3am on Friday at the Eastgate retail park, which is less than a 10-minute walk away from where the body was found.
He had travelled there by taxi from a venue in Little Ann Street, St Jude’s, a 10-minute drive away.
More from Sky News:
Woman admits killing six-year-old son
Sick pay boost for 1.3m workers
The 26-year-old’s family spent the weekend searching for him, and asked people to check their sheds and gardens.
His partner, Laurin Bohler, said loved ones had travelled from Birmingham to help.
Mounted officers and police drones were also involved in the investigation.
Ms Piovesana competed for Team GB before switching to the Austrian team, and defeated British competitor Lucy Renshall in the women’s -63kg judo event at the Paris Olympics last year.
A man has been jailed for life for murdering his son’s girlfriend after she returned home from the school run.
Officers from Dyfed-Powys Police were called to an address on Bigyn Road in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, on 5 July last year.
Sophie Evans, 30, had sustained 72 separate injuries on the outside of the body, “all but three of them new injuries”.
Richard Jones, who is now 50, believed he was “being taken advantage of financially” by Ms Evans and his son, with whom she was in a relationship.
While the purpose of Jones’s visit was “purely normal”, he confronted her on that morning about his suspicions and Ms Evans’s reaction was such that Jones “lost [his] temper”.
He subjected Ms Evans to “gross violence” before ultimately strangling her and leaving the property to run errands, including ordering a new bank card and buying pastries from a bakery.
Richard Jones. Pic: Dyfed-Powys Police
‘Last time on their school run’
During sentencing on Monday, the defendant kept his head bowed for most of the hearing.
He will have to serve at least 20 years behind bars before he can be considered for release by the parole board.
Swansea Crown Court heard Ms Evans was the mother of two young children.
Passing his sentence, Judge Geraint Walters said Ms Evans “had just taken her two children for the last time on their school run” prior to the attack.
“She wasn’t to know that when she parted company with them that morning,” he added.
The court heard the Jones believed he was being defrauded by Ms Evans and his son.
“There is clear evidence, that in the days leading up to this, that you had begun harbouring thoughts that Sophie Evans and your own son were in fact financially scamming you,” he said.
“What precisely brought about that view is difficult to determine.”
Judge Walters said Jones “lost [his] temper when [he] didn’t get the answer that [he] thought [he] deserved”.
He added that, having lost his temper, the defendant “subjected [Ms Evans] to gross violence over a period of time, before you ultimately extinguished her life by strangulation”.
The court was told in evidence that at the time of the attack, Ms Evans was wearing only a bath towel.
‘The rock of our family’
In a victim personal statement, Ms Evans’s sister Kerry Quinlan told the court she was “the rock of our family”.
She said Ms Evans was taken from them in a “senseless and cruel act”.
“Words cannot express fully how much of a loss this has been to her children,” she added.
“When they cry themselves to sleep wanting their mum, she isn’t there and never will be.”
Ms Quinlan added that Jones had “taken everything from us, all in the most despicable way possible”.
Read more from Sky News:
Human skeletal remains found near retail park
Police operation in centre of German city
Ms Evans’s partner at the time, and the defendant’s son, Jamie Davies, said in a victim personal statement, read on his behalf, that they had both “trusted” Jones, and that Ms Evans had even been planning the defendant’s 50th birthday.
“The thought of having to live my life without Sophie causes me extreme pain and heartache,” he added.
Prosecuting, Michael Jones KC said the offence was aggravated by the defendant’s previous convictions and the fact Ms Evans was murdered in her home.
In mitigation, David Elias KC said there was a “lack of premeditation”.
UK
Third man charged with murder over house fire in Bradford that killed mother and her three children
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports11 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway