McMahon slams ‘incoherent and unfair’ social care plan

Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon

Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon has slammed the Government’s social care and national insurance rise plan as incoherent and unfair.

Yesterday (Tuesday) the Government announced that from April 2022 National Insurance contributions will rise by 1.25 percentage points meaning working people will have to pay more to fund social care.

Mr McMahon said: “This plan is nothing more than a sticking plaster.

"Before the pandemic there was a crisis in social care, with staff on poverty wages, insecure contracts and thousands of vacancies in the sector.

“To say that the Government have had to do this because of the pandemic is incoherent and unfair, the plans announced by the Prime Minister yesterday do not mean that the quality-of-care people receive will improve or that the crisis in the sector will be dealt with meaningfully.

“As Keir Starmer said to the Prime Minister yesterday, a badly paid social care worker will pay more tax for the care they’re providing without a pay rise or greater job security, and landlords who rent out dozens of houses and flats won’t pay a penny more under these plans but those working full-time jobs to afford the rent will.

“We need comprehensive reform of our social care system, rooted in fairness.

"One that deals with the burden that social care costs have put on council tax, meaning that our lowest earners pay more of their income to council tax proportionately than the highest earners do.

“Fiddling around the edges of the system and increasing the tax burden on working people is not the answer to our social care crisis.

"Thousands of families in Oldham West and Royton who are struggling with the dilemma of ensuring their loved ones get the care they need deserve nothing but a better and fairer system.”

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