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| Budget decisions that are urgent matters of life and death | Budget decisions that are urgent matters of life and death |
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| There is a real and imminent danger that the promises made to improve mental health services for the millions of people who need them are about to be betrayed. This is because the chancellor failed to give the NHS the money it needs to continue to deliver current levels of care (Extra cash ‘plugs some gaps but not all’, warns top doctor, 23 November). Before the budget, the head of NHS England, Simon Stevens, warned that a cash shortfall would make it “increasingly difficult” to deliver on the government’s promise to improve mental health services in the coming years. | There is a real and imminent danger that the promises made to improve mental health services for the millions of people who need them are about to be betrayed. This is because the chancellor failed to give the NHS the money it needs to continue to deliver current levels of care (Extra cash ‘plugs some gaps but not all’, warns top doctor, 23 November). Before the budget, the head of NHS England, Simon Stevens, warned that a cash shortfall would make it “increasingly difficult” to deliver on the government’s promise to improve mental health services in the coming years. |
| The chancellor’s failure to heed that warning means difficult choices will have to be made when NHS England’s leaders meet to consider the budget next week. We are seeking an urgent commitment from NHS England and the government that the promised improvements to mental health services will be honoured. As shown by the case of girl X, highlighted by Sir James Munby this summer (Bed found for suicidal girl after judge’s fury, 5 August), this is a matter of life and death for many of our most vulnerable citizens. | The chancellor’s failure to heed that warning means difficult choices will have to be made when NHS England’s leaders meet to consider the budget next week. We are seeking an urgent commitment from NHS England and the government that the promised improvements to mental health services will be honoured. As shown by the case of girl X, highlighted by Sir James Munby this summer (Bed found for suicidal girl after judge’s fury, 5 August), this is a matter of life and death for many of our most vulnerable citizens. |
| The person who has just been brought to A&E after trying to hang themselves can’t wait; the child in care who has been repeatedly abused and pushed from pillar to post can’t wait; nor can all the girl Xs out there who cannot get a service without the intervention of a high court judge. Daily, hourly, lives are being put at risk and futures blighted by a lack of timely and appropriate treatment. The government and NHS England must stick to their promise to end this terrible injustice.Professor Wendy BurnPresident, Royal College of Psychiatrists | The person who has just been brought to A&E after trying to hang themselves can’t wait; the child in care who has been repeatedly abused and pushed from pillar to post can’t wait; nor can all the girl Xs out there who cannot get a service without the intervention of a high court judge. Daily, hourly, lives are being put at risk and futures blighted by a lack of timely and appropriate treatment. The government and NHS England must stick to their promise to end this terrible injustice.Professor Wendy BurnPresident, Royal College of Psychiatrists |
| • Once again, families of children and young people with serious health needs are ignored by a budget containing plenty of headline grabbers, but very little comfort. Philip Hammond pledged an extra £2.8bn in funding for the NHS, which falls way short of the £4bn funding gap. In our recent impact review we reported a 37% increase in the average WellChild nurse caseload. There are huge shortages in a children’s nurse workforce, while growing numbers of families caring for a child with serious health needs in the community are left increasingly isolated. | • Once again, families of children and young people with serious health needs are ignored by a budget containing plenty of headline grabbers, but very little comfort. Philip Hammond pledged an extra £2.8bn in funding for the NHS, which falls way short of the £4bn funding gap. In our recent impact review we reported a 37% increase in the average WellChild nurse caseload. There are huge shortages in a children’s nurse workforce, while growing numbers of families caring for a child with serious health needs in the community are left increasingly isolated. |
| In the spring budget this year, the same chancellor announced £2bn in extra social care funding, but none of that was for children and young people. The latest crumbs from the table of the chancellor are unlikely to reach families of children with serious health needs. As the national charity for seriously ill children, we are dismayed once again at a government that fails to prioritise the health and wellbeing of some of the most vulnerable children and young people in our society. It is once again up to organisations like WellChild to pick up their pieces.Colin DyerChief executive, WellChild | In the spring budget this year, the same chancellor announced £2bn in extra social care funding, but none of that was for children and young people. The latest crumbs from the table of the chancellor are unlikely to reach families of children with serious health needs. As the national charity for seriously ill children, we are dismayed once again at a government that fails to prioritise the health and wellbeing of some of the most vulnerable children and young people in our society. It is once again up to organisations like WellChild to pick up their pieces.Colin DyerChief executive, WellChild |
| • The claimants of universal credit (UC) will not be falling over backwards with gratitude to the chancellor for his reduction from six weeks to five of the time they have to wait for their first payment. Some of them will have recently been without income during a three-month benefit sanction under the old jobseeker’s allowance. Rent and council tax arrears will have piled up to be paid off over further punishing months with the cost of living rising. After the first payment of UC it can leave them without income for a further month at a time due to a zero-hours contract; that creates further debt problems. Low income and debt impact on mental and physical health; no income and debt is so much worse. The UK is heading for a depth of poverty and debt-related ill health not seen for a century.Rev Paul NicolsonTaxpayers Against Poverty | • The claimants of universal credit (UC) will not be falling over backwards with gratitude to the chancellor for his reduction from six weeks to five of the time they have to wait for their first payment. Some of them will have recently been without income during a three-month benefit sanction under the old jobseeker’s allowance. Rent and council tax arrears will have piled up to be paid off over further punishing months with the cost of living rising. After the first payment of UC it can leave them without income for a further month at a time due to a zero-hours contract; that creates further debt problems. Low income and debt impact on mental and physical health; no income and debt is so much worse. The UK is heading for a depth of poverty and debt-related ill health not seen for a century.Rev Paul NicolsonTaxpayers Against Poverty |
| • I was interested to hear that changes made in the budget to universal credit would cost £1.5bn. But as far as I could see they involved paying people the money that they were actually entitled to, just a bit earlier. So unless universal credit was always intended to remove £1.5bn from poor people’s incomes, where is this £1.5bn additional cost coming from? Could someone explain?Rima HortonLondon | • I was interested to hear that changes made in the budget to universal credit would cost £1.5bn. But as far as I could see they involved paying people the money that they were actually entitled to, just a bit earlier. So unless universal credit was always intended to remove £1.5bn from poor people’s incomes, where is this £1.5bn additional cost coming from? Could someone explain?Rima HortonLondon |
| • As central government doesn’t know how to build houses, and the industry doesn’t want to, the quickest way for Philip Hammond to achieve his laudable aim would be to: (1) empower local authorities to compulsorily purchase land with lapsed planning permission and borrow money for rented “social” housebuilding on long-term rates; (2) abolish the “right to buy”, which is discouraging housing associations from building.Michael HeatonWarminster, Wiltshire | • As central government doesn’t know how to build houses, and the industry doesn’t want to, the quickest way for Philip Hammond to achieve his laudable aim would be to: (1) empower local authorities to compulsorily purchase land with lapsed planning permission and borrow money for rented “social” housebuilding on long-term rates; (2) abolish the “right to buy”, which is discouraging housing associations from building.Michael HeatonWarminster, Wiltshire |
| • The £350m for the NHS now and £1.6bn next year is dwarfed by the extra £10bn Philip Hammond recently found to shovel to development-sector shareholders through “help to buy”. And now we have the removal of stamp duty on houses up to £300,000, which will also push up prices, with the difference again going to developers or other vendors, instead of the exchequer. Another outrage.John WorrallCromer, Norfolk | • The £350m for the NHS now and £1.6bn next year is dwarfed by the extra £10bn Philip Hammond recently found to shovel to development-sector shareholders through “help to buy”. And now we have the removal of stamp duty on houses up to £300,000, which will also push up prices, with the difference again going to developers or other vendors, instead of the exchequer. Another outrage.John WorrallCromer, Norfolk |
| • The lowest five-year growth forecast since 1945. An economy £40bn smaller in 2022 than initially thought. Borrowing more money than every Labour chancellor combined. If a Labour politician had delivered this budget, newspaper headlines would be calling for their head and Conservative politicians would be telling everyone that “Labour cannot be trusted on the economy”.Tony SchendelSalisbury, Wiltshire | • The lowest five-year growth forecast since 1945. An economy £40bn smaller in 2022 than initially thought. Borrowing more money than every Labour chancellor combined. If a Labour politician had delivered this budget, newspaper headlines would be calling for their head and Conservative politicians would be telling everyone that “Labour cannot be trusted on the economy”.Tony SchendelSalisbury, Wiltshire |
| • Larry Elliott senses it, but can’t admit that we are nearing the end of economic growth (Britain in the slow lane: dawn of a new reality, Budget supplement, 23 November). He writes that “the moment [has come] when Britain has to stop kidding itself. Growth is not going to return to its pre-crash levels”. True, but further to that, at some time in the future, and the sooner the better for the sake of the environment, industrial countries like ours will need to end the economists’ and politicians’ obsession with year-on-year growth. Economic growth is contributing to global warming, pollution of oceans, soil depredation, key resource depletion, and the often unjustified expectation that we will all become richer. | • Larry Elliott senses it, but can’t admit that we are nearing the end of economic growth (Britain in the slow lane: dawn of a new reality, Budget supplement, 23 November). He writes that “the moment [has come] when Britain has to stop kidding itself. Growth is not going to return to its pre-crash levels”. True, but further to that, at some time in the future, and the sooner the better for the sake of the environment, industrial countries like ours will need to end the economists’ and politicians’ obsession with year-on-year growth. Economic growth is contributing to global warming, pollution of oceans, soil depredation, key resource depletion, and the often unjustified expectation that we will all become richer. |
| Instead of seeking growth, our economists could focus on ways of redistributing wealth so the poor become richer and the rich poorer: universal citizen’s income may be an effective approach to this and a way of ameliorating the problems of unemployment. We could support community life and encourage neighbourly support of the needy. Our political leaders could make agricultural plans for feeding the nation almost entirely on the produce of our own land – and ensuring the continued fertility of its soil. Measures like these could make the country “strong and stable” for the future, rather than weak and wobbly from the frantic search for elusive growth.Michael BasseyNewark, Nottinghamshire | Instead of seeking growth, our economists could focus on ways of redistributing wealth so the poor become richer and the rich poorer: universal citizen’s income may be an effective approach to this and a way of ameliorating the problems of unemployment. We could support community life and encourage neighbourly support of the needy. Our political leaders could make agricultural plans for feeding the nation almost entirely on the produce of our own land – and ensuring the continued fertility of its soil. Measures like these could make the country “strong and stable” for the future, rather than weak and wobbly from the frantic search for elusive growth.Michael BasseyNewark, Nottinghamshire |
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| Budget 2017 (November) | Budget 2017 (November) |
| Mental health | Mental health |
| Poverty | Poverty |
| Universal credit | Universal credit |
| Benefits | Benefits |
| Welfare | Welfare |
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