Some gps might well suggest it strongly but its not official policy as far as I am aware

In England where you still have prescription charges the other thing GPs will do is point out its cheaper for you ( if you pay charges) to get it OTC rather than on prescription

Brian has no access to the capital and most final salary schemes are already in deficit. How is he to pay a wealth tax when earning 20k income. Much better to tax his estate and let him live in peace. We need to start taxing the dead, not the living!

He has no access to it now, but that doesn’t mean the large invested sum cannot be accessed for tax purposes with a change in the law.

As for being in deficit, not all schemes are and those that are either have a plan in place with the Pension regulator to correct the shortfall or (worst case) will collapse into the Pension Protection Fund which reduces the payouts slightly but then they re-emerge solvent. NB One of my final salary pensions fell into the PPF and re-emerged. Still got a gob smacking return on investment equivalent to 20% annual interest over the life of the fund!

There is no reason why he can’t contribute to a wealth tax given he has the best pension of the three scenarios as his ‘wealth’ is actually the greatest.

but the person with a 30k pension has paid more tax whilst accumulating their pension

Not on their pension they didn’t!

Pensions are incredibly tax efficient! You pay nothing on contributions because they’re taxed when you take the pension. Except that you can take 25% of a pension tax free and most higher rate tax payers avoid 40% tax paying in, but will only pay 20% tax when taking their pension.

When I worked full time I was earning over £100k and paying less than 30% tax overall as I paid the full amount into my pension each year, so my taxable salary was only £60k, of which only £10k or so of that fell into the higher rate tax band. I am, however, going to have an almighty tax bill when I start drawing down my pension….

I really hope we never live in a world where pensioners on modest pensions are forced to surrender, against FCA advice, their benefits to pay a wealth tax. To my mind that is targeting exactly the wrong people, not to mention the impact the mass forced sales of assets would have on share prices and the economy. I’m not against higher taxes to fund public services but surely better to tax his estate.

allanoleary
Full Member

While we are talking about funding the NHS and social care in the here and now, I see no reason why we can’t have a small fee payable for GP appointments.

Because most health issues are best dealt with quickly, having people put things off for any reason can lead to a big negative impact on health, and that generally means increased costs for the NHS/country. Obviously some people take the piss but I reckon on average it’d be better if UK people went to the GP quicker.

And also because a small fee for one person isn’t so small for the next.

Also, in general opening any doors to monetarisation and barriers to healthcare is a really bad idea in the current climate.

I’m in a strange situation where when this thread started my dad going into care was only a theoretical possibility (he had eye sight issues and was left frail but largely recovered from a couple of strokes in 2019 but was coping well living alone at his home). Saturday before last I got a call that his vision had gone downhill rapidly and he was now blind so could I come over to look after him (I did and fortunately could get the following week off work). He went from saying he’d rather go to Dignitas than a care home to being understandably scared of his situation and wanting to go into residential care (well he’d still prefer to just die but that’s not a realistic self-determined option…).

Firstly – he’s lucky in the sense he has a healthy bank account and a generous pension so he doesn’t immediately need to look at selling his home (on the outside chance once he adjusts he thinks he can return to live at home with care being provided there). I can’t imagine how much more stressful the situation is for families that have to look at selling the home asap just to afford care (before the assets are spent and government funding take over).

Secondly – care homes are eye-wateringly expensive. It looked like he would only need residential care (£600/week at a nearby well-regarded one), which is pretty reasonable (although still only self-fundable to a small minority I’d have thought). The local nursing home option would be £1350/week – that’s pretty crazy to me (although once you break it down assuming 24/7 care it’s not so outlandish). Even his savings & house are going to disappear pretty quickly at that rate (which he sadly may now need as his health deteriorated further over the last few days and he’s now in hospital where we can’t even visit 🙁 – we suspected another stroke but apparently they can’t find evidence on an MRI scan).

I do though have to agree with TJ though:

on using the house to pay for care.

If you do not do this a large tax increase would be needed.
The only people to benefit from not selling a house to pay for care are the children of middle class parents who still get their inheritance.

Why should my taxes pay for someone else to inherit?

It would have been a small light at the end of the tunnel to be able to pay off my mortgage with the  inheritance  but I can’t in any way justify that being more fair than someone working full time struggling to make ends meet paying more tax instead.

Its one of those issues that whichever way you look at it is unfair to someone.