When the Tories announced their social care plan they claimed that it would include a cap of £86,000 on care costs from 2023. Now, after whacking up taxes on working people, they have sneaked out stealth changes to these proposals that will hammer house-owning pensioners in Garston and Halewood and mean that many will have to sell their homes to meet these care costs.

Vulnerable people with assets under £186,000 will be financially penalised, paying more for their care, while the wealthy are unaffected. The median price of a house in Garston and Halewood is £185,000.

Most people in Garston and Halewood will quite likely have to sell their home to pay for their care while those that are ‘asset rich’ (mostly found in the South of England) will be the ones to benefit the most. Local people will see hard-earned assets, such as the family home, snatched away from their families while working people fund these plans through the increase in their National Insurance.

Ministers promised that nobody would have to sell their home to pay for care but under this plan ordinary working people – especially those in the Midlands and the North – will be forced to sell to pay the £86,000 whilst the homes of the wealthiest are protected. That’s the Tories once more looking after themselves while the rest of us pick up the bill.

Elderly people and their families across Garston and Halewood are being let down yet again by this government and younger people in lower wages are being clobbered the most to pay for it as National Insurance rises and real wage growth stagnates as inflation rockets upwards. This proves that ‘levelling up’ is no more than an empty slogan.

What the Government have announced isn’t a care plan, it’s a care con and the people of Garston and Halewood deserve far better.