National Insurance hike set to cost Shropshire's Severn Hospice half a million pounds
Rises in National Insurance and the national minimum wage are set to cost a county hospice an extra half a million pounds.
Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
A raft of measures linked to the Labour Government’s first budget will come into force tomorrow - Tuesday April 1, including a rise in the national minimum wage.
This will be followed by changes to national insurance contribution (NICs) payments from Saturday, April 6.
Millions of UK workers will benefit from a rise in the national minimum wage to £12.21 an hour on Tuesday, representing an increase of 77p.
But for hospices the double measure is set to have a serious impact on their budgets - as they work to maintain services in the face of a host of rising costs.
In Shropshire Severn Hospice will see its costs rise by £500,000 because of the latest increases.
It means that its day-to-day costs will have risen by more than £2.5m in the past two years - and incredibly difficult situation for an organisation that has to raise £2 for every £3 it spends on care.
The charity's chief executive, Heather Tudor, has thanked its supporters who back the hospice, but said that the unavoidable increase in costs is a "real challenge".
She said: “We have to raise £2 for every £3 we spend on care and our day-to-day costs have risen by more than £2.5 million in the past two years.
“Changes to National Insurance and the minimum wage will add a further £500,000 to those costs.
“We are so very fortunate that we have loyal and generous supporters who remain committed to being there for us, and we don’t take them for granted, but the fact remains our recurring costs are rising faster than our income and this is a real challenge for us.
“The government has recently awarded hospices like us additional financial support and while any help is of course welcome, it was disappointing that the funding could only be used on capital projects and not for services. Severn Hospice continues to work with all our sector peers in persuading ministers that hospice funding needs to be addressed so that patients continue to receive the specialist palliative care they deserve.”
