"We Have To Find Money From Somewhere": Damian Green Defends Tax Bump For Over 50s

29 April 2019, 09:52 | Updated: 29 April 2019, 10:21

Senior Tory Damian Green tells Nick Ferrari that the social care system should be more like the pension model, as he defends suggesting a tax rise for over-50s.

Conservative MP Damian Green has put forward a case for asking over-50s to pay more in National Insurance to help close a £2.75 billion funding gap, and suggested people buy insurance policies in a similar way to taking out a personal pension.

Speaking to Nick Ferrari, the former Cabinet Office Minister and de facto Deputy Prime Minister said that there should be a system where more is spent on social care "because the quality is too often inadequate but more importantly the quantity isn't adequate".

Mr Green said: "We all have heard tales of people being stuck for weeks or months in hospitals because there simply isn't an appropriate care bed for them to move out to.

"Frankly any politician that says we can spend more money on something but we're not going to have to raise it from anywhere is being dishonest."

Mr Green added: "I'm being honest with people, we need to spend more on social care and here is a range of options to raise £2.5 billion which is part of what we need."

But when Nick put to him that it didn't sound enough to cover the entire country, Mr Green suggested that people buy insurance policies in a similar way to how they buy private pensions.

"On top of this compulsory taxation funded system, we should encourage people to buy insurance policies" to make sure people are certain they can afford a particular care home or "whatever extras they add," he said.

"On the model of the pension system, where we have a state pension but many millions of people have a private pension on top of that to give them more security at old age.

"I think we should apply that model to the care system as well and that would get even more money into it which would mean we could have a decent civilised care system so that the most vulnerable people have peace of mind in old age."

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