says the move to expand the Ultra-Low Emission Zone
For the average full-time worker, that works out at £244-a-month. There are currently 230,000 care workers in London, earning on average just under £24,000 a year. The new charge represents a 15% tax on their take-home pay.Professor Green says that it is simply unaffordable, and so many in London who need care in their own home will simply have to go without.
“The Mayor is doing a really detrimental thing extending this charge. He seems to have no understanding of the impact this will have on the most vulnerable. Transport for London estimate 160,000 cars and 42,000 vans will be eligible to pay the charge, which is applied broadly to diesels registered before 2016, and petrol vehicles before 2005.
“Lots of people would not get services and that would then make the situation in the NHS even more acute, because people would then go into crisis. The only way they would be able to get support is to dial 999.”