Tuesday 7th September 2021

[refitman]

Morning all.

[PorFavor]

Good morfternoon.

[tinyclanger2]

Yo.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Ok so I'm completely confused by this social care 'plan'.

Is property no longer going to be regarded as capital in regard to social care? Because unless that's going to change I can't see how this is going to stop people having to sell their houses.

[tinybgoat]

Ok so I'm completely confused by this social care 'plan'.

Is property no longer going to be regarded as capital in regard to social care? Because unless that's going to change I can't see how this is going to stop people having to sell their houses.

I think it's still capital, but there's a lower Cap on how much People have to provide,
So it will could still mean people having to sell their houses, but would probably be expected to be covered by equity release

https://www.health.org.uk/news-and-comm ... are-reform

(Don't know how realistic this is)

[AnatolyKasparov]

I see that there was kite flying about a new lockdown in this morning's papers.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... l_Care.pdf

So no is the answer to my question above, an £86,000 cap will still mean many people who don't have substantial savings will have to sell their houses to fund their care. It would appear* that once again under the Tories the poorest will pay the most and lose the most.

*I am perfectly happy to be corrected.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

So it will could still mean people having to sell their houses, but would probably be expected to be covered by equity release

Bit of a bugger for anyone hoping to inherit the house though.

[PorFavor]

@Sky'sGoneOut

As your post implies, the first step towards making any sense of it whatsoever is to ditch all thoughts of the concept of a "plan". And that of "Social Care", come to that.

And re property, people who own the lowest monetary value single "property " (sometimes known as a home) will still be clobbered much more, proportionally, than people owning much higher value single property (or, indeed, a "home"). Bloody home owning poorer people mustn't be allowed to get above their station despite their value to the Conservatives in the "us and them" game. They may like to think that they've made it, but they've been had. The selling off of Council Homes was a big con.

[PorFavor]

@Sky'sGoneOut

I see you got there before me. In other words, you can't beat them, but you can be conned into deluding yourself into believing that you've joined them.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Selling off council homes happened before Thatcher.

Where she differed was running down building any new social housing stuff.

A deliberate ideological act.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Indeed PF,

I wonder how many of the 'red wall' Tories will be smart enough to realise they've been utterly shafted.

To put it crudely the further North you go in England the more you'll be losing proportionally from your income, savings and assets.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Too many older voters have totally bought into the "good old Boris" myth I'm afraid.

[gilsey]

As your post implies, the first step towards making any sense of it whatsoever is to ditch all thoughts of the concept of a "plan". And that of "Social Care", come to that.

My first thoughts are a) this is a whacking great tax hike, they're trying to make absolutely sure they don't have to do another before the next election and b) there's no indication that any of it at all is going to councils to help with existing problems.
In no way is it a plan to fix the social care system.

Seems to me to be a plan to raise the headroom for siphoning off profits in the NHS.

[gilsey]

As for the triple lock, don't think many will be betting on it coming back.

[AnatolyKasparov]

That would genuinely be "brave" given how much the Tories rely on pensioner votes.

[tinyclanger2]

Netflix tip: The Chair.

[gilsey]

Yes.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Perhaps it was a hallucination brought on by heatstroke but I think I just watched Scotland play really well and beat Austria away from home.

Netflix tip: Kingdom. If only for the hats.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

The number of people I've seen today claiming NI is some special kind of tax that somehow magically bypasses the treasury straight into the benefits sytem or NHS has been highly amusing, almost entirely Tories of course using it as a bullshit justification for ignoring other options.

I've also seen people on the left offering praise to Johnson for at least doing something.

But what has he done? It looks to me like he's simply raised taxes to crudely paper over some cracks he said he was going to fix over two years ago and he hasn't even done a decent job of that. He said nobody would have to lose their home in order to fund their social care. That's still going to happen. Where are local authorities supposed to be getting the money from to pay for this? Because there's absolutely nothing in that shoddy document they released today explaining it. Where are the extra care staff coming from? The extra nursing home places? None of this has been answered.

Like everything else his government does it seems like a barely thought through quick fix to get him out of a hole because he promised something he never thought he'd have to deliver, and like all the rest of their dismal efforts it's a half arsed expensive bodge job that'll end up doing next to sweet fuck all for those who really need it.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

That would genuinely be "brave" given how much the Tories rely on pensioner votes.

Not so long ago I'd have agreed with you but the way Johnson (or more accurately Brexit) has remoulded the Tory party into a toxic midden of boorish English nationalists they may be looking at the demographics of those who handed them victory last time and seeing pensioners as being no longer as useful as they once were.

[PorFavor]

And it seems that, nowadays, "Brexit means Covid". They're getting people to fall for that one, too.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

My friend went to see this lot this evening. I didn't despite being offered a free ticket. Fucking Covid.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Although the free ticket was because of someone else cancelling because of Covid, so if Covid wasn't happening the free ticket would, in all likelihood, not have been available in the first place.

So I've lost nothing and am having a go at a virus for something it isn't to blame for.