Advisers have called on Boris Johnson’s successor to prioritise the introduction of tax relief for income protection plans and the removal of insurance premium tax on health insurance products.
With Johnson resigning as PM and Conservative Party leader this afternoon (7 July) following a week which saw an array of ministerial resignations led by the chancellor and health secretary, Health & Protection asked advisers what they would like to see prioritised by his successor.
Alan Lakey, director at CI Expert, revealed he has always believed that the uptake of income protection plans would be much higher if it received the same tax relief as a pension plan.
“While this would mean that the benefits would be taxed, most clients believe they are anyway,” Lakey added.
“The lure of tax relief would ignite interest and enable advisers to extend their marketing to increase their clients take up.”
Stephen Ellis, associate director at Properis, called on the new PM to accept that corporate private medical insurance should not be taxed as it “saves the NHS millions each year and helps reduce NHS waiting times”.
“Then be very bold and make group income protection compulsory along the lines of auto-enrolment,” Ellis continued. “But accepting that is not going to happen, let’s have a more realistic and no cost change to group life assurance by scrapping the link to lifetime allowance would be a good start.”
Isaac Feiner, director at LifePoint Healthcare, reiterated his call for the removal of IPT on health insurance products.
“The NHS needs help. Healthcare is a core foundation of a strong and proper society and at present the stresses are unsustainable.
“Anything that can alleviate this problem needs to be explored. At the very extreme end point, the corollary affect is that people are dying. We need to save lives and ensure those in treatment can do so to the highest levels possible.”
Andrew Green, director at Craigdalliehealthcare, called on the new PM to keep the better functioning parts of the NHS and look to introduce an insurance model – similar to Medicare as seen in Australia.
“Care would still be free at the point of delivery and provide universal coverage for UK citizens but some patients would be expected to bear costs under that public system,” Green explained. “Under the arrangement, the government would remove insurance premium tax from PMI and should encourage individuals to sign up for private cover, either to top up any gaps between their medical needs and public treatment or as a complete alternative in order to speed up the access.”
But Andrew Wilkinson, director at Moneysworth, told Health & Protection the new PM needs to explore ways of extending protection product access to a more diverse consumer pool, explore ways of introducing positive changes to the current arrangement to ensure quicker access to protection applicant’s medical information and address the cost of living crisis.