Why pensioners will pay more for social care – Yorkshire Post Letters

From: Robert Holland, Skipton Road, Cononley.
To what extent should the elderly pay for their social care needs?To what extent should the elderly pay for their social care needs?
To what extent should the elderly pay for their social care needs?

IN the current debate about how to pay for increased needs of health and social care services, some say that pensioners should not be expected to contribute. I’m a pensioner and I disagree (Tom Richmond, The Yorkshire Post, September 4).

We oldies have most to gain ourselves from well funded health and social care. I am a comfortably off in my 80s. I pay income tax at the normal rate on my income.

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I would happily pay more tax than I do at present in order to meet extra costs of these services which are mainly used by the elderly.

To what extent should the elderly pay for their social care needs?To what extent should the elderly pay for their social care needs?
To what extent should the elderly pay for their social care needs?

I see no reason to expect younger people to bear all these extra costs. Lower income pensioners who do not pay income tax would not be expected to pay more in tax, of course.

There is another possible source of income for the Government. This is the tax relief which pensioners currently enjoy – approximately £40bn per annum (according to HMRC in 2019). The bulk of these tax concessions are enjoyed by those who pay tax at the higher rate.

I suggest that approximately £10bn could be made available from these sources. The resulting spending would mean more people employed and paying taxes, which would raise income for HMG.

From: John Pennington, Keighley.

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THE NHS has requested an additional £10bn per year and the Department of Health has pledged to support delivery of GP appointments, yet it is impossible to get one. Am I not alone in asking what our doctors are doing?

My local surgery is in a group of 10 under the ‘award-winning’ Modality Super Partnership which extends to 38 other medical hubs across the country, with a head office in Birmingham.

Surgeries receive £155 per year for each registered patient so, without need for medical intervention for 15 years, I should be well in credit.

Doctors are paid £78,000, plus a practice profit share, for a four-day week, easily rising to £100,000 with external consultancy work.

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The NHS admit they have not been able to make efficiency savings – unsurprising if all 48 surgeries, like mine, have a practice manager and the scenario is replicated across the UK.

The NHS contracts out to large groups of surgeries that eventually hold it, and us, to ransom. This is not a family doctor service but big business which pays dividends to a select few. The country’s supposed bottomless pit of money is running out and we are (again) asked to pay more.

Modality’s CEO Vincent Sai is as remote as an appointment, the lack of care borders on medical negligence. Thank goodness for our excellent A&E.

From: Geoffrey Brooking, Saxley Court, Havant.

IF the rumours are true, then I say well done Boris Johnson for being bold and having the courage to raise National Insurance to pay for social care. It may be breaking an election pledge for which there will be no end of complaints from Labour, but we cannot allow the status quo to continue.

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The issue was created by Labour, overlooked by David Cameron, bungled by Theresa May and is finally being fixed by Boris Johnson. Now all Boris has to do is scrap any plans for a £20 benefit cut for some of the same very people who are already part of these social and healthcare ticking time bombs.

From: Bob Watson, Baildon.

TOM Richmond uses every opportunity to have a go at the Prime Minister, this time (The Yorkshire Post, September 4) commenting on his “scandalous failure to produce the care reforms he first promised on the day he took office”.

Since then there has been an unexpected and dreadful worldwide pandemic of unknown proportions and cost. This has sadly, but rightly, meant that so many issues have had to be relegated to the back-burner.

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