Boris Johnson, the Conservative Prime Minister, announced a new Health and Social Care Levy. The first of its kind in modern political history. The Levy will deliver an extra £12 billion each year for the next three years. This money will be specifically earmarked for Health and Social Care.
In total the coffers of Health and Social Care departments across the UK will swell by £36billion over three years,18% of this will go to Social Care and the remainder will be targeted at Health Services.
The Levy comes in the form of a 1.25% increase in National Insurance (NI) contributions.
The levy will be paid by those in employment and the self employed earning more than what is known as the Primary Threshold and Lower Profits limit - this is the figure above which you are required to pay tax. In 2021/22 this Threshold was set at £9,568. To give this context in 2022/23 someone earning the median basic income (£24,100) can expect to pay an extra £180.00 in tax, all of which will go directly towards our Health and Social Care services.
In the first year this levy does not impact individuals above the State Pension age but will do so from April 2023.
The Levy means that for NHS England its budget has increased by 3.9% between 2018/19 and 2024/25, the same is true for Social Care.
It is expected in the short term that this increase in funding will be used to tackle the backlog of care needs taht have not been able to be met due to the pressure put on services by the OCIVD19 pandemic.
Sajid Javid, Health Secretary has said this is a sensible use of funds warning that current waiting lists, sitting at 5million, could escalate to 13million if action is not taken.
Health Managers have agreed with Mr Javids assessment but say that even with the identified funds, waiting lists will only be managed if cuts are made to other services.
The Levy, this first of its kind for Health and Social care looks set to provide certainty to Department managers who now know the funding they can expect, it remains to be seen if it will be enough.