LABOUR TO TAX DEATH!

The Conservatives have unsurprisingly rounded upon Labour's National Care Service plans.

Yes, this "death tax" will tax you, for dieing. You might as well not look into it anymore, because there is nothing more to say on the matter.

For those who were sensible enough to not take that last sentence literally, here is the run-down on the National Care Service.

The alleged plan is to charge everyone £20,000 to cover the cost of their care once they retire.

There are three different types of people who will use the National Care Service. Let us assume that we are talking about people who the National Care Service plans to cater for i.e. those with the "greatest needs".

- People who can afford to pay the £20,000 when they retire, and so will do.

- Those who can't afford to pay £20,000 when they retire, but hold that or more in assets. These people will have that £20,000 recovered from their estates when they die (the "death tax").

- Those who can't afford to pay £20,000 when they retire, and don't have the assets to leave £20,000 after death. They will be covered by the state.

The Conservatives have made it clear that a National Care Service would be too costly, and that even this "death tax" wouldn't raise enough money to keep it going, instead predicting that Labour will cut other parts of the NHS to help fund it.

Andrew Lansley, Shadow Health Secretary, has said the Conservatives want to allow people to "leave as much of their lifetime’s savings as possible to the next generation" and has suggested a voluntary one-off premium of £8,000 to fund care. Under his plan "no-one would be forced to sell their home to pay for care".

I don't suppose he'll be willing to make any guarantees on that statement.

The idea for the service will provide to middle-income pensioners what a mortgage provides to non home owners, or finance provides when you're buying a car; the ability to benefit from something now, for payment later. The only difference is that with the NCS, middle-income pensioners won't have payments to make when they are alive and living off a relatively small pension, instead the payment is deferred until their weekly living costs are exactly nil, i.e. when they die!

I think the Conservatives will have to be careful with how aggressively they criticize the plans for the NCS as it's dangerously close to being a good one which could garner strong public support. They certainly won't look good if they were seen to criticize a something that worked!

The opposition's sound-bite is also pretty good, though. It'll be interesting to see how this one pans out...