The germans have the answer to britain's social care problem | thearticle

One has to admire Damian Green. Banished from the cabinet, he has now turned his able political mind to trying to solve Britain’s problem of paying for age-old care. According to a

LSE-Newcastle University report last year, the number of elderly people over 85 will double in numbers by 2035 – an increase of 1.5 million. Many of them will develop multiple conditions,

including dementia and diabetes, and need ever more complex care. The number of over-85s requiring help throughout the day with tasks such as dressing, bathing and going to the toilet is

estimated to almost double to 446,000 by 2035. Politicians warble about the wonders of living for far more years than the biblical ‘three score and ten’, but the plain fact is that we have

now idea of how to ensure the last lap of life is not mean, miserable and utterly unworthy of a rich country. There is also a generational unfairness as the 80+ year olds who worked hard,

saved sensibly and handed on a better life to their children see them now fleeing from the responsibility of funding adequate old age care. Finding the money to pay for old age care is a

quick way to end a political career. David (Lord) Lipsey was brave as spokesperson for the 1997-99 Royal Commission which urged free nursing and personal care funded from general taxation.

The 21st century has not favoured increases in income and other taxes so that Royal Commission disappeared into the graveyard reserved for most royal commissions which make difficult

recommendations. Andy Burnham, as Labour’s last health secretary, suggested taxing the windfall profits on property, and predictably was denounced as proposing a ‘death tax.’ We have £1.6

trillion in our homes, but no easy or acceptable way of liberating some of it via taxes or death duties to pay for any public good. Nick Timothy – remember him? – put something similar to

Burnham’s suggestion into the first draft of Mrs May 2017 general election manifesto, and was promptly denounced by Labour for suggesting a “dementia tax”. Now Damian Green has come up with

a mish-mash of ideas, including taxing the winter-fuel allowance for over 65-year-olds, and a 1 per cent surcharge on national insurance paid by those over 50. Plus he wants to see more

private old age care insurance schemes. None of these ideas make much sense. Disentangling incomes and means testing on the modest £200 winter fuel allowance will cost more to administer

than it will bring in. National Insurance is just another tax, and for poorer people or those in low-pay jobs who use food banks it will seem unfair. Insurance companies will pay for any

report suggesting people take out more policies, but again only those with discretionary income to spare are likely to be tempted. There is an alternative: to copy Germany’s

_Pflegeversicherung _system introduced by the centre-right Kohl government 25 years ago. It requires a specific payment of 2.2 per cent of income (slightly higher for younger citizens and

childless couples) up to a maximum of €4000 a month into a fund dedicated to providing old age care. Medical assessments are carefully made with input from families and social care

organisations into payments that can range from home visits to full-time care home treatment for elderly people with serious conditions. No-one is required to sell homes or liquidate savings

and everyone has the assurance of good old age care and medical treatment in the closing years of life. Yes, it is a tax in the sense everyone has to pay it, but no more than anyone with a

car or a house is obliged under law to insure it. It may be unfashionable in our Brexit era to admit it, but there may be systems developed in other European countries that work better than

anything the UK has managed. If Damian Green is serious then he should look to Germany for answers.