Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you. If memory serves me right, I think Anne Whittaker many, many years ago
00:05proposed a Royal Commission to look at the whole situation of social care and
00:09how it was funded. But why I'm here tonight is because I work and volunteer
00:13for Dorothy House Hospice, which covers 800 square miles, Wiltshire and Somerset.
00:18The new announcement of national insurance rates and the production and
00:23the banding of when that kicks in will be an impact on our finances of four
00:27hundred and twenty two thousand pounds in this financial year alone. How does
00:32the Treasury and Rachel Reeves justify not supporting hospices which provide
00:39excellent palliative care across the country, which the NHS itself admits it
00:43cannot do as well as local hospices? I've only got about 20 seconds left, I appreciate your time.
00:49But is that something that the government is prepared to look at and possibly review?
00:54Well look, we support the budget. Hospices do a fantastic job. We've had to
01:00take a very difficult decision on employing national insurance, but
01:05charities will continue not to pay business rates and we've also doubled the
01:09employment allowance for those smaller charities.
01:13They should be excluded though. Health and Care should be excluded.
01:15That's the limit of it. Okay, you got your answer. I'm not sure it's the answer you wanted but you got an answer.