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UK PM hikes taxes to help the needy
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday set out a tax hike to pay for the soaring cost of caring for elderly and disabled people, a breach of election pledges that many in his party fear will expand the state at the expense of the young.
After splurging on the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson is now trying to address Britain鈥檚 creaking social care system, whose costs are projected to double as the population ages over the next two decades.
Politicians have been trying for years to find a way to pay for social care, though successive British prime ministers have ducked the issue because they feared it would anger voters and trigger rebellions within their own parties.
Johnson also raised the National Insurance tax paid by around 25 million working people to subsidize care for pensioners, including wealthy retirees. The elderly account for about half the social care bill, with other groups such as the disabled or mentally ill making up the rest.
鈥淚t would be wrong for me to say that we can pay for this recovery without taking the difficult but responsible decisions about how we finance it,鈥 Johnson told parliament. 鈥淚t would be irresponsible to meet the costs from higher borrowing and higher debt.鈥
Like many other Western leaders, Johnson is facing demands to spend more on welfare even though government borrowing has ballooned to 14.2 percent of economic output 鈥 a level last seen at the end of World War II. For Johnson, who helped win the 2016 Brexit vote and then as prime minister presided over Britain鈥檚 exit from the EU, fixing social care 鈥渙nce and for all鈥 offers a possible way to broaden his domestic legacy.
In 2019, Johnson said he had a plan for social care and promised to prevent the elderly from having to sell their houses to pay for care.
But his plan is a gamble.
Although Johnson won the biggest Conservative majority in the last election since Margaret Thatcher, many of the party鈥檚 lawmakers worry his government lacks both a big-picture reform plan for the United Kingdom and the talent to implement one.
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