1 week Ago By Mieka Smiles
Rachel Reeves has enraged unions with her winter fuel allowance plans (Image: Getty) Rachel Reeves must be panicking. There she was, the calm, intelligent, fresh face of a new Labour government who said they were hell-bent on creating a fairer society and doing things differently from a supposedly oh-so callous and chaotic Tory government. But now, just weeks on from striding into her new Downing Street pad, she faces fury from all quarters thanks to her mean decision to snatch away the Winter Fuel Allowance from those who aren’t on benefits but are still very much living on the breadline and facing a long, cruel winter of choosing between heating or eating.
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Log('[Load] OVP flagTcfLoaded',new Date())}else{document.addEventListener("tcfLoaded",()=>{loadOvpScript()ExpressApp.Log('[Load] OVP tcfLoaded',new Date())})}},1500)}) However, there is one huge decision that she made last month that hasn’t grabbed quite as many headlines - but should enrage hard-working Brits just as much.
I’m going to be totally honest. I am not one of those beacons of society who is hyper vigilant with my money. And although I’ve always had a job and paid my taxes, my monetary dealings would probably fill older generations with dread.
READ MORE: 'Labour has betrayed 10m pensioners with heartless winter fuel axe' A cap had been proposed for how much anyone would have to pay for care (Image: Getty) But my personal financial hopelessness aside, I, like many millions the length and breadth of Britain, have worked hard to buy a home. For many people a property is their biggest asset. They diligently maintain it, pay off as much as possible and hope one day those efforts will be rewarded and we can access the cash when it comes to downsize or hand a good chunk of it over to our loved ones.
However, under current rules the sad reality is that the value of our property can be quickly burned through by extortionate care home fees if you are forced into one through ill health in old age. Currently, if you have no other savings or assets you get to keep a piddly £23k of your home’s value if you don't have a spouse or dependent living in it. And the rest? You could be forced to use it to pay your own care home fees as a 'self-funder' - an eye watering £3,200 a month for a care home place and £4,312 for one with nursing care.
A year? That’s £41,600 and £56,056 respectively. Meanwhile, if you have no income, property, assets or savings it’s entirely free. Nowhere is this cruel tax on responsibility more harshly felt than in my neck of the woods in the North East of England, where average property prices are amongst the lowest in the country and yet, although marginally cheaper, this is not reflected accordingly in the care home costs.
We can’t discount Londoners from this, though, as despite many having a whopping property value, their ability to pay for care is being squeezed as average house prices are not matching the rapidly rising cost of care. The last Conservative government was aware of these issues and was in the process of changing the rules and putting in a limit to the amount people would have to shell out on their own care costs in their lifetime. The cap was to be set at £86,000 and was due to be implemented in October 2025.
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Read our Privacy Policy Reeves unceremoniously scrapped it to help fill her and Keir Starmer 's now infamous - and many would say mythical - “£22bn blackhole”. She said this would save £1.1bn by the end of 2025-26.
The cap wasn’t a perfect solution - as the consensus is that it’s also unfair to burden younger generations with a higher tax bill as a result. But this is not an issue that is going to go away. In fact as people live longer it’s going to be ever more acutely felt and, I would imagine, begin to impact on people’s motivation to behave responsibly with their cash.
I’m definitely not the only one who thinks it unfair - with older people’s charities also condemning the move. Emily Hindle, policy manager at the Alzheimer's Society, said: “We are very disappointed at the UK government's decision not to proceed with the cap on social care costs in England. “While we appreciate the financial challenge the new government faces, this decision pushes the burden on to individuals who pay around £100,000 for care on average when they are already dealing with dementia's devastation on their lives.
” Simply put, Reeves must put on her big girl pants and decide what on Earth she is going to do to prevent this horrible draining away of hard working people’s fairly earned cash. I do hope she shocks everyone in October's Budget and does something to solve it. But I won’t hold my breath.
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