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PA
UK News

Salvation Army backs tax proposals to fund social care

by Cara Bentley

In a joint report on social care funding by the Health and Social Care and Housing, Communities and Local Government Committees, MPs say the cash raised from a premium in England would be held in a dedicated and audited fund.

Under the current system, most people fund social care through personal assets, leaving many unable to afford it.

The Salvation Army has highlighted the current difficulty for old people who don't own their own homes.

Speaking to Premier, Jonathan Graham, policy adviser for the Salvation Army said: "There are obviously some very clear problems in how the system current functions and I think a lot of those are to do with how the system is funded and in particular how that system disadvantages people who, in later life, don't necessarily own their own home so aren't allowed to put the value of those homes up as collateral against the costs of their care.

"There's a very clear sense that we need to have funding options that both in the short, the medium and the long term ensure that people can receive good quality care both when and where they need it."

Graham said the Salvation Army support the recommendations of the report to have some sort of tax-based or insurance funding: "Provided that people are clear where their money is going and what it's being used for, then often they're much happier to contribute."

The report based their recommendations on feedback from focus groups. The positive responses to having a premium is dependent on this money being marked 'adult social care' and it being clear what the benefits would be to those paying.

Graham explained why the Salvation Army were getting behind the report: "With a lot of our care homes, because people don't always have the best choice in terms of where and when they enter a care home...a lot of the time the people who do enter the care homes who aren't necessarily self-funded are coming in at a much later stage and as a result of that their needs to tend to be a lot higher so then their quality of life in terms of when they're in the care home, it can suffer."

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