Wednesday 10 February 2010

Labour's Charge for Dying



'In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.' - The Works of Benjamin Franklin, 1817.

Funeral prices are estimated to increase by 31% to £3,481 by 2014. That is for a 'standard' funeral, nothing fancy, just a hearse, a limousine and a simple oak veneer coffin.

Most elderly, if they possibly can, leave enough money for their family to see them sent on their way. Some are fortunately and will leave more especially if property is concerned. The inheritance tax level is presently £325,000 and anything more is taxed at 40%.

Not content with the amount of inheritance tax the Treasury receives, Labour are proposing an 'Inheritance Levy' to fund social care. Radical proposals for a £20,000 compulsory levy may be endorsed by the government before the general election.

The levy would be deducted from the estates of older people when they die, replacing a system that forces many pensioners to sell their family homes to fund nursing home bills.

Andy Burnham, the heath minister, is hopeful that he has the support of Lord Mandelson - the man who will oversee the party's election strategy. The political danger behind the compulsory scheme is that the child of a parent that needed little expensive social care in their old age would still see the levy being imposed on their parent's estate.

Gordon Brown's latest social care plans do need to be paid for, but wouldn't it be better to give less aid to China and India and use the money here at home before taxing the elderly further. Many have paid tax throughout their working lives and again pay tax on their pensions.

Will the tories support this levy? They been silent so far on the subject although in the past couple of hours Andy Burnham has speedily back-pedaled.


12 comments:

JRB said...

Morning,

If such were to be introduced it would be both literally and metaphorically – ‘The last nail in the coffin’

Labour, and the other parties would do well to remember, that with a growing aged population, they may find that they just might need the vote of we senior citizens.

Cate Munro said...

Oh Sb! I'll be lucky if I manage to get through this comment without resorting to expletives!

This is f****** outrageous. How DARE this bunch of incompetent, evil thieving b******* even THINK about doing this?

They're seriously evil beyond words and they need to be exposed as such.

Sorry for the foul language but I'm really upset about this.

Witterings from Witney said...

SR,

".....but wouldn't it be better to give less aid to China and India and use the money here at home before taxing the elderly further."

Would it also not be better to not give money to the EU too and make use of it at home?

Before we help others we should help our own!

subrosa said...

Afternoon John. I'm listening to PMQs as I type and Cameron has just asked Brown if this is to be included in the Bill. Of course Brown didn't answer.

subrosa said...

Dreadful isn't it TT. See what I've said to John (above).

subrosa said...

Of course we should WFW. If we had a happy, healthy population there would be no problem giving a little of our prosperity away but I heard this morning aid money is 'ringfenced' - something I wasn't aware of.

Apogee said...

TT. took the words out of my mouth.
Time we got out of the EUSSR and stopped handing out money to all and sundry, including labour party politicians who are overwhelmingly responsible for us being in the hole the fools are still digging!
Let's get this country out of the mess it's in, by electing a Government with a few more clues and some education instead of the Communist Party manual of dogma!

subrosa said...

Unfortunately the two main parties have worked it so as that would never happen Apogee.

I can't see the UK having enough courage to only vote for one of the smaller parties can you?

Apogee said...

Dunno! But I can see the possibility of Italian style politics where there were a lot of small parties which achieved enough mass for the tail to wag the dog! Interesting times!

subrosa said...

I can't see people having the courage. They're too brainwashed by labcon politics.

Crinkly & Ragged Arsed Philosophers said...

I'll have the £20k cheque on me when I'm fed into the pyre.

Anybody who wants it is free to grab it.

subrosa said...

Kind of fancy a pyre myself RA. Sounds slightly more personal than being fed into an oven.

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