London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 06, 2026

‘Illogical’: frontline health and care staff react to funding plan

‘Illogical’: frontline health and care staff react to funding plan

Boris Johnson announced that £36bn raised by tax increase would go ‘straight to frontline’

Boris Johnson announced in parliament that £36bn raised by the new 1.25 percentage points tax rise would “go straight to the frontline” of health and social care. We asked some of them – doctors, care workers, managers and families of people in care homes – for their reaction.

The consultant


Dr Richard Breeze, an intensive care consultant in London, said that “superficially [the new funds] sound wonderful and one hopes it’s a genuine investment in the NHS”. But he said it was “illogical” to be raising the funds from relatively low-paid NHS staff, who would feel disincentivised as a result.

“The lifeblood of the NHS will be compromised,” he said. “Going into what looks like a third wave [of Covid] the staff are exhausted and the idea of putting their taxes up is robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

He said the threshold for paying the tax should be raised for health and social care staff to prevent the lowest paid from paying the levy.

“We are desperately short of nurses and anything that can be done to incentivise them would be priceless.”

Documents setting out details of spending showed £5.6bn extra would go to social care over three years, including some to cap lifetime care costs at £86,000. It is well short of the amounts estimated to be needed to keep up with demand.

The family member


Lesley Lightfoot – whose mother, Blumah Samuels, 90, sold her £260,000 flat to pay for £4,300-a-month care fees at the care home she has lived in for almost three years – said the lack of significant new investment in the care sector meant little change for families’ experience of lower-budget care homes.

“Families who have a property to sell will be in the same position and God help people who haven’t,” she said. “It is not going to make a difference. What needs to be addressed is the standard of care. [Care work] needs to be a proper job.”

She also said the statement lacked a “sense of urgency” with the £100,000 cap on care costs not introduced for another two years and only then for people starting care packages after October 2023.

“What is going to happen to the people still at home who need help right now?”

The care home manager


Donna Henderson, manager of two Saint Cecilia care homes in Scarborough, said much more funding was needed to tackle the staffing crisis hitting the sector now.

“Let’s try and think we are heading in the right direction,” she said, “but social care is struggling so much. We have gone through such difficult times over the last 18 months. We are doing our recruitment drives and people are not coming through. They are going to have to invest. These figures are nowhere near what we need. I find it quite disheartening at times.”

The care worker


Andrew Trehearne, who last month quit a job as a home carer in Oxford which paid just £75 for a day that would span up to 14 hours, said: “What shocked me was there’s precious little to help carers to stay in the business. This isn’t a plan, for goodness sake. The people I worked with were dedicated to the cause but this is not going to help them.”

Trehearne was one of hundreds of thousands of home care workers who often only get paid for 30 or 45 minute sessions when they are working with people in their homes, with travel time and breaks unpaid.

“There should be better pay and training but I have not seen anything like that,” he said. “We are utterly exhausted emotionally and physically.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Sarah Wakfer Appointed Chair of Northern Ireland’s Health and Care Regulator
Scotland Housing Completions Fall to 11-Year Low Amid National Shortage
UK Water Companies Face Tougher Oversight and Unannounced Regulatory Inspections
Middle East Conflict Pushes UK Fuel and Wholesale Energy Prices Higher
Andy Burnham Raises Prospect of Second Brexit Referendum in Review of UK-EU Relations
EY Warns UK Fiscal Headroom Has Halved to £11 Billion Ahead of Autumn Budget
BT Accused of Pressuring Vulnerable Customers During Digital Landline Shift
British Carmakers Warn of Growing Pressure From EU-China Tariff Dispute
Green Party of England and Wales Adopts Motion Defining Zionism as Racism
Medical Charity Threatens NHS Legal Action Over Two-Year Autism and ADHD Assessment Waits
British Transport Police Report Record Rise in Violence on Railways
Glasgow Council Workers Face Pay Cuts Under Fire-and-Rehire Plan
British Medical Groups Press Prime Minister Andy Burnham to Cancel £330 Million Palantir NHS Contract
UK Faces Record Bluetongue Outbreak Across Livestock Farms
UK Schools Report Thousands of Child-on-Child Sexual Offences
High Court Overturns Ban Blocking Gaza Families From Reuniting With Relatives in UK
G7 Authorizes Emergency Fuel Release as UK Diesel Prices Hit £2 a Litre
France and Italy Draw 1-1 in Nations League Match
Pope Leo XIV and Prince Albert II of Monaco Meet in Metz
SNCF Expands Low-Cost Ouigo High-Speed Service Between Lyon and Bordeaux
Paris Expands Dedicated Cargo Bike Routes for Urban Deliveries
French Film Industry Pushes for Tighter Streaming Investment Rules
Marseille Court Hands Down Prison Terms in Public Procurement Corruption Case
LVMH and Kering Rely on US Demand as Chinese Luxury Spending Slows
Toulouse Aerospace Sector Launches €80 Million Modernization Fund
Javier Milei Courts French Investment in LNG and Lithium
Mistral AI Launches Sovereign Model for European Public Services
French Competition Authority Fines Retailers €40 Million Over Misleading Promotions
France Records Exceptional Electricity Exports as Nuclear Output Recovers
Dassault Aviation Expands Rafale Assembly Capacity at Mérignac
Sanofi Invests €1 Billion in New Biologics Production Hub Near Lyon
France Protests Germany’s Extension of Border Controls Into 2027
French Public-Sector and Transport Unions Threaten National Strike
France Deploys Riot Police After Violence in Lyon Suburbs
French Anti-Terrorism Prosecutors Investigate Radicalized Flydubai Co-Pilot
France’s Defense Budget Surpasses NATO’s 2% of GDP Target
French Government Faces No-Confidence Threat Over Budget
France and G7 Release 100 Million Barrels From Strategic Oil Reserves
France Convenes Emergency Defense Council Over Threats to Commercial Shipping
France and Germany Coordinate Military Response After Russian Strikes on Kyiv Infrastructure
UK Police Release Six Iranian Nationals on Bail After RAF Fairford Security Alert
UK Business Confidence Falls as Energy Costs and Tax Uncertainty Rise
Cornwall Insight Warns UK Energy Bills Could Rise 16% in January
UK Introduces Zero VAT on Household Electricity Bills
UK 30-Year Gilt Yield Hits 6% as Bond Market Pressures Intensify
UK Introduces Stricter Subcontractor Checks and Expanded Trade Union Access
Green Party Proposes Three-Year Emergency Freeze on Private Rent Increases
UK Treasury Committee Seeks Tax Clarification Over Manchester City Investigation
Royal Marines Deploy to Faroe Islands for Northern European Security Exercise
UK Business Confidence Weakens as High Costs Delay Investment
×