21 September 2021
Penning: New Health and Social Care Levy must not be siphoned off to fund huge NHS top management salaries

Sir Mike Penning, Member of Parliament for Hemel Hempstead, has backed the Health and Social Care Levy Bill as necessary to tackle the NHS backlog and fund social care in the long term. However, he warned the Government that the levy must not be siphoned off to fund huge top management salaries and that the NHS Trusts must spend it on the backlog as Parliament intends.

The problem of funding for social care had been kicked down the road for far too long.

Sir Mike Penning MP

Sir Mike, who has long been campaigning for more accountability of NHS Trusts, warned that top NHS management must use the money to address the issues the tax is designed to tackle. 

The new Health and Social Care Levy will be introduced in 2022/23 as a 1.25% increase on the current rates of National Insurance Contributions (NICs). In 2023/24 it will become a new separate tax of 1.25%, replacing the increase in NICs rates and will apply to working pensioners as well. NICs will then return to their previous level. The funds from the levy will be ringfenced to fund investment in health and social care. 

Sir Mike said:

“I know this is controversial but the problem of funding for social care had been kicked down the road for far too long and, whilst not perfect, this new levy is the best available solution to tackle the problem. 

“I recognise that we are breaking a manifesto commitment, but we do have to be realistic. Our manifesto was written before the pandemic, and everything has changed since then. It would be totally unacceptable for us to carry on behaving as if it had never happened. 

“The new National Insurance Contributions levy will initially enable the NHS to tackle the backlog that has built up as a result of covid, but long-term it will provide a new, permanent way to pay for reforms to social care.  

“Every day I get letters from constituents worried about missed hospital and doctor appointments as a result of covid, so it is absolutely the right thing to do to take action to deal with this. 

“The important thing is that the NHS management spend the money on tackling the backlog in the first instance.”