Health and social care is in crisis. Not just because of the pandemic, but a crisis years in the making.

This is a crisis that has seen quality of care dropping and staff leaving the sector.

Subject to years of funding cuts, despite ever increasing demand. Lack of funding has led to staff being overworked and underpaid, with many eventually leaving the sector for good.

Health and social care faces a recruitment crisis. The latest official data for England shows there are 112,000 vacancies in social care alone.

Nearly a quarter of the 1.5 million people working in the sector are on zero-hours contracts and pay is often the minimum wage.

After putting their lives at risk throughout the pandemic, nothing is being done to improve pay for care workers which would surely help reduce the recruitment issues facing the sector.

It has taken a decade of under-funding, pushing health and care services into a worsening crisis and a pandemic for the Government to eventually think about fixing the crisis in health and social care. £36 billion in extra funding has been announced over three years.

This funding will be shared by the NHS and social care, with social care receiving £1.8 billion a year.

However, this extra funding for social care falls well short of the £6 billion a year the Health Foundation think tank calculates would be needed by the end of the decade, just to keep up with demand.

The increase in funding for health and social care will be paid for by increasing national insurance, one of the most regressive forms of taxation.

This plan will hit the youngest and lowest paid the most.

Many of those on low income are already having to manage wage stagnation and increasing costs for everything else, such as food and utility bills.

Let’s not forget, many of these people are the very ones who have kept the country fed, watered, nursed, transported, vaccinated, and cared for throughout the pandemic.

Meanwhile, a significant proportion of those better off have actually managed to increase their net worth.

National Insurance is a grossly unfair tax, in which those earning the most pay a significantly lower amount as a proportion of their pay packet.

Take this increase in tax for the lowest paid, along with the removal of the £20 a week universal credit uplift and many families will face further struggle to make ends meet.

We are in the aftermath of a pandemic which has seen inequality grow, but still it is those working people who are expected to pay the most.

A minority are still able to get away with not paying their fair share.

To ensure the NHS and social care is fit for the future it needs to be funded properly to ensure decent wages. Funding should come from making those with the most pay their fair share.

This might be unpopular for the few, but will benefit many more.