LGA call for tax increases to pay for social care
14 November 2018
The Local Government Association (LGA) is calling on the government to make the case for national tax rises so that current and future generations can be confident they will have the care and support they need to live the life they want to lead.
When the Government announced on 18 June 2018 that there would be a further delay to its green paper on the future of social care, a little over a month later, the LGA filled the void with its own green paper, 'The lives we want to lead'.
Doing nothing is no longer an option
The LGA has said that the responses it has received to the green paper make it clear beyond doubt: doing nothing is no longer an option. Years of significant underfunding of councils, coupled with rising demand and costs for care and support, have combined to push adult social care services to breaking point.
The LGA’s green paper started a debate across the country about how to fund the care we want to see in all our communities for adults of all ages and how our wider care and health system can be better geared towards supporting and improving people’s wellbeing.
The LGA has now published its response to this consultation which summarises the range of responses, including an overwhelming recognition of the importance of adult social care in its own right and an equally strong consensus that the system is unsustainable in its current form and underfunding is having serious consequences across the board.
The report also puts forward a number of recommendations that the Government should focus on in its own green paper, including:
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Making the case for national tax rises, such as increases in Income Tax and/or National Insurance
Polling by Britain Thinks, commissioned by the LGA as part of its green paper, found that support for an increase in National Insurance was the most popular with the public of the options put forward with 56 per cent of people in favour, while only 18 per cent opposed the measure.