Care charges – “dementia tax” could hit 76% of homes in Bury

76% of homes in Bury could be eligible for sale to meet Theresa May’s so-called ‘dementia tax’, research by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

The figures are based on the value of homes sold so far this year across Bury, where 76% are over £100,000 (based on house sales so far this year). The threshold, set at £100k estate value would cover 9 in 10 houses in England. This is a conservative estimate as this is based of the value of homes rather than entire estate values which will often be higher as they include savings and other assets.

The Prime Minister has now said that there will be a ‘cap’ on care costs, but refuses to say what the cap will be. If the cap was set at £200k, over half the the value of the average home would be at risk of being wiped out in 40% of English constituencies.

We believe that politicians need to be honest about how much money we need to spend on health and care services, particularly for a population that includes more older people. The Liberal Democrats are calling for a penny on income tax to boost funding for the NHS and social care by £6 billion a year.

Every elderly person who needs care should receive it in the best place for them. People shouldn’t have to worry about losing everything they’ve worked hard for to pay for crippling care cost. Nobody should be forced to sell their home to pay for their care needs.

Help us put a stop to the care tax by signing this petition. Stop the ‘Dementia Tax’

Lib Dems will invest £27 million to protect school funding in Bury

The Liberal Democrats have announced they will invest £27,055,827 more in schools and colleges in Bury over the next parliament.

The funding for Bury would reverse cuts to frontline school and college budgets, protect per pupil funding in real terms and ensure no school loses out from changes to funding arrangements.

£1,534,076 of the funding would be spent on protecting the Pupil Premium, introduced by the Liberal Democrats to help the most disadvantaged children.

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Bury North, Richard Baum, said:

“Children in Bury are being taught in overcrowded classes by overworked teachers – but Theresa May doesn’t care.

“Under the Conservatives, funding per pupil is set to see the biggest cuts in a generation, while billions of pounds are being spent on divisive plans to expand grammars and free schools.

“This extra £27,055,827 of funding would ensure no school and no child loses out.

“We will reverse crippling Conservative cuts to school budgets and invest to ensure every child has the opportunity to succeed.”

Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron said:

“A landslide for the Conservatives would allow Theresa May to take parents across the country for granted and cut our schools to the bone.

“Only the Liberal Democrats can provide the strong opposition Britain needs to stand up for Bury.

“Vote for the Liberal Democrats and you can change Britain’s future.”

More information:
The Liberal Democrats will invest £6.9bn more in our schools and colleges over the next parliament, to ensure no school and no child loses out. A breakdown of local figures on additional funding by local authority can be found here.

Over the course of the Parliament, we will:
Protect per pupil funding in real terms in schools (£3.31bn)
Protect further education per pupil funding in real terms (£660m)
Ensure no school loses out from the National Funding Formula (£1.26bn)
Protect the pupil premium in real terms (£415m)
These plans will be fully costed in the Liberal Democrat manifesto, which will be launched in due course and set all our spending plans out in more detail. This will include reversing the Government’s proposed funding for new grammar schools.

A report by the National Audit Office has found school budgets will be slashed by £3bn in real terms by 2019-20 – the equivalent to reducing spending by 8 per cent per pupil, under current government plans (link)

Lib Dems penny for NHS would raise £21.6 million extra for Bury

The Liberal Democrats have announced they would plug funding gaps for the NHS and social care by putting a penny on income tax, in their first major manifesto commitment of the election campaign.

The tax would raise an additional £21.6 million for Bury, with £14 million for the NHS and £7.6 million for social care each year.

This is the party’s flagship spending commitment and its first major policy announcement for the election. The Liberal Democrats manifesto will also set out a ‘five-point recovery plan’ for NHS and social care services in their manifesto.

At least 70% of Brits would happily pay an extra 1p in every pound if that money was guaranteed to go to the NHS, an ITV poll found last October.

Liberal Democrat parliamentary Candidate for Bury South, Andrew Page, said:

“Right now in Greater Manchester we are seeing patients lying on trolleys in hospital corridors, urgent operations being cancelled and the elderly being denied the care they need.

“The Liberal Democrats are prepared to be honest with people and say that to secure the future of the NHS we will all need to chip in a little more.

“A penny in the pound would allow us to invest in improving local NHS services and ensuring the elderly receive the care they deserve.

“This Conservative government has left our health and care services chronically underfunded – and while the crisis gets worse they just don’t seem to care.

“We cannot continue asking the system to deliver more and more, without giving it the resources to do so.”

Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson and former health minister Norman Lamb said:

“The NHS was once the envy of the world and this pledge is the first step in restoring it to where it should be.

“A penny in the pound to save the NHS is money well spent in our view.

“But simply providing more money on its own is not enough and that’s why this is just the first step in our plan to protect health and care services in the long-term.”

More information:

The Liberal Democrats manifesto will set out a ‘five-point recovery plan’ for NHS and social care services. This will include a 1% rise on the basic, higher, additional and dividend rates of income tax in the next financial year raising around £6bn per year, which will be ringfenced to be spent on NHS and care services and public health.

A regional breakdown of how the £6bn would be distributed, based on current funding allocations for both the NHS and social care, can be found here

Lib Dems Commit to End Rough Sleeping

The Liberal Democrats have become the first major party to commit to ending the “national scandal” of rough sleeping across Britain, including across Greater Manchester.

The latest figures show there were 189 people sleeping rough in Greater Manchester in 2016, many are young people and many believe these figures to be only the tip of the iceberg.

The Liberal Democrats have set out a series of measures to end rough sleeping, including introducing a Housing First provider in each local authority that would put long-term homeless people straight into independent homes rather than emergency shelters.

The news comes as a coalition of homelessness charities, including Centrepoint, Crisis, Homeless Link, Shelter and St Mungo’s, have called on political parties to commit to end rough sleeping in Britain.

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Bury South, Andrew Page, said:
“It is a national scandal that so people are sleeping on the streets in 21st century Britain.

“By increasing support for homelessness prevention and properly funding emergency accommodation, we can end rough sleeping across Greater Manchester and across the country.

“We will ensure our local authority has at least one provider of Housing First services, to allow long-term homeless people to live independently in their own homes.

“The evidence suggests that supporting people and giving them long-term, stable places to stay is far more successful in tackling homelessness than constantly moving them to different temporary accommodation.

“Under this government, homelessness has soared and young people have been stripped of housing benefit, threatening to make matters even worse.

Benefit cuts and Brexit squeeze to leave 3 million families £2,500 worse off

Three million households will be hit to the tune of £2,500 a year

Planned benefit cuts by the Conservative government combined with soaring inflation will leave nearly 3 million working households an average of £2,500 a year worse off, according to analysis by the Institute of Fiscal Studies.

Low inflation over the last two years has meant the government’s freeze on most working-age benefits has only amounted to a 1% real cut so far.

But rising inflation from the falling pound is now set to reduce the value of these benefits by 5% between now and 2020, with total cuts of over £5 billion a year in the long run.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor Susan Kramer commented: “Theresa May’s plans for a divisive Hard Brexit and savage cuts to benefits will leave millions of working families worse off.

“Three million households will be hit to the tune of £2,500 a year as a result of cuts to tax credits, rising prices and the falling pound.

“The Brexit squeeze will hit people in the pocket across the country, with the poorest families hit hardest.

“This election is a chance to change Britain’s future and stop a disastrous hard Brexit that will leave us all poorer.

“Every Liberal Democrat MP elected is a challenge to Theresa May’s Hard Brexit agenda.”