Conservatives eye death taxes to fund social care

Prospectus aimed at appealing to working families

clock • 2 min read

The Conservatives are said to be considering raising post-death taxes to fund changes to social care provision, as they seek to tackle the effects of an ageing population.

Ahead of next week's manifesto launch, the party is exploring ways to make wealthier people contribute to rising social care costs after their death, through higher inheritance tax or other reforms, the FT reported. This comes despite Chancellor Philip Hammond previously rejecting the introduction of a "death tax". He seemed to rule out such a move in his spring Budget when he said: "For the avoidance of doubt, those options do not include, and never have included, a death tax."  However, senior Conservatives claim he was referring specifically to a Labour proposal to introduce a f...

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