ALEX BRUMMER: New betrayal of social assistance

When it comes to social care, successive governments never miss an opportunity.

Labour’s foolish decision to create a social care taskforce led by Baroness Casey, which will not report until 2028, throws a perennial problem into the long grass.

It has been some 14 years since the publication of Andrew Dilnot’s comprehensive report on welfare payments. In 2019, Boris Johnson took to the steps of Downing Street and promised to make welfare reform a priority.

His government planned to pay for a new service through a 1.25 percent tax for “health and social care”, and the funds raised would be set aside. Instead, revenues fell into the black hole of public finances following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, the transition from hospital to social assistance remains blocked.

An elderly cousin spent five unnecessary weeks at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton last summer waiting for a social care package.

There are countless similar stories. The answer to the financing problem is visible. In the years since the establishment of opt-out private pensions, set up by Adair Turner’s commission, some £30 billion has been accumulated in the National Employment Savings Fund and many billions more in pension schemes defined contribution. Very few people choose not to participate in a scheme where funds are collected at source from payment packages.

Imagine how much money would have been raised for social assistance, both at home and in assisted living facilities, if a similar opt-out scheme had been established in Dilnot’s time with low-level contributions.

It is recognized that there would be objections. Some on the left argue that young people should not be required to contribute to a fund for wealthy pensioners. The answer is that young people could choose not to participate. But by doing so, they would not be entitled to assistance should a misfortune occur during their working life or during their retirement.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting could learn from other G7 nations. In Germany, long-term care taxes the income of workers and pensioners, at a rate of 3.05 percent for those with children and 3.3 percent for those without. In Japan, with a rapidly aging and long-lived population, everyone over the age of 40 must contribute to the long-term care fund. Only those over 65 years of age can use the system.

The British government’s idea of ​​a new National Healthcare Service is a great PR slogan. Starmer should learn from the post-war Attlee Labor government, which did not delay and quickly legislated for a “cradle to grave” welfare system.

Iron decision

Labour’s economic thinking was, until the election of Donald Trump, closely aligned with Joe Biden. Ministers would do well to watch how the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CIFUS) and the soon-to-depart Biden White House are handling Japan’s Nippon Steel’s £11.4bn bid for US Steel, with headquarters in Pittsburgh.

Faced with a strong lobbying campaign by both Nippon and US Steel seeking approval of the deal, the outgoing president blocked the transaction for national security reasons. Steel is considered a strategic industry. Equally significantly, the CIFUS review expressed concern that if Nippon’s global business interests required it, promises made to the US government to keep the furnaces burning and save jobs would be scrapped.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, unions and other stakeholders would do well to take this into account, given the naive faith placed in promises made by Czech sphinx Daniel Kretinsky to secure control of the Royal Mail. He has promised to keep the jobs jobs, pay rises and universal service at Royal Mail for five years. These commitments have rarely proven enforceable. If there were a global recession or interest rates soared, the economics of Kretinsky’s £3.6bn offer would change.

Postal workers and consumers could pay a high price.

Tipping the windmills

Donald Trump’s call to “open up” the North Sea and get rid of wind farms will not be welcomed by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband. It shows the scale of the problems facing the UK ambassador to Washington, Lord Mandelson, in renewing the special relationship with the United States. Energy security, jobs and tax revenues should not be sacrificed for the sake of climate change.