This week is the first full week of the new tax year, bringing in a 2% cut in national insurance contributions for working aged people, whilst pensioners see an 8.5% increase, to £221.20 per week. But also, this week, Labour have started to talk about their plans for the NHS.
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting is an individual I respect. He and I worked closely together on the Treasury Select Committee a few years ago. IN publishing his views, in the Sun, he takes on the “lefty middle classes” who see the NHS less as a service, more as a sacred institution. In the media rounds, Wes was talking sense.
The reality is, things that we take for granted were created in a different age. The state pension, and the private pension tax arrangement, was introduced in at a time when people retired at 65 and the life expectancy was the same. The NHS was created when life expectancy was 67. Now, we try to use these same systems at a time when life expectancy is closer to 80. A significant proportion of a person’s expenditure by the NHS comes later in life than the system was designed for.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has recently been commenting on pensions. The state pension is now around 30% of median incomes, the highest its ever been. The triple lock, guaranteed for the next five years (if Conservatives are re-elected) has restored fairness. The IFS go on to point out that because of house price inflation, 27% of pensioner households are worth more than a £1,000,000. They claim pensioners have certainly never had it so good, and probably never will again (although I fully realise that many pensioners will not see it that way).
Wes Streeting pointed out politicians have been trying to resolve these issues for years. David Cameron, on retiring, said his biggest regret was not sorting adult care. Theresa May, in the 2017, was shot down in flames for trying to change care costs. The last few elections have been dominated by challenges of “privatising the NHS”. Interestingly, Streeting proposes to use private hospitals to reduce waiting lists.
We face a lot of challenges, in the NHS, pensions, housing and more. But Streeting points out, correctly, that we will get nowhere if politicians of all stripes torpedo proposals, simply for party political reasons. It really is time to have a sensible, thoughtful debate on all this.