Andy Burnham is preparing to face down fierce opposition after officials drew up plans for a 1.8% levy on workers over the age of 34 to fund a new social care system costing £18bn a year. The proposal, developed by civil servants in the Department for Health and Social Care, would require mandatory contributions to a privately managed fund designed to pay for care in later life – a break from the current National Insurance model.
The prime minister has vowed to use “whatever political capital I have” to fix social care, but his plan has already drawn a sharp response from Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch. In a letter to Burnham, Badenoch demanded he “rule out any tax rises or increased borrowing” and said her party would only support reforms that are fair to those who “made provisions and saved up over the course of their lives”. She warned that with “businesses closing or relocating, youth unemployment higher than in the eurozone, and the cost of living already causing real hardship”, further tax increases were the last thing Britain needed.
“PM Andy Burnham proposes 1.8% levy on workers over 34 to fund £18bn social care system, sparking Tory opposition.”
Burnham is expected to deliver a major speech on adult social care this week, where he will call for “problem-solving, not point-scoring” and invite Badenoch and Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey to discuss urgent reforms. A No 10 source said the speech was part of his plan to “run towards problems that have been neglected”. Davey welcomed the initiative, saying: “This has to be the start of a real effort to end the social care catastrophe.”
The levy, which would apply to earnings above £6,240, is one of several funding models drawn up after Burnham made social care a priority. Other options include a “pay-as-you-go” system similar to those in Germany and Japan, where workers contribute 1.8% of their salary. The idea was first proposed in April by the think tank Re:State, for which Burnham recently served as an adviser. Under that model, an employee earning £50,000 would pay an extra £788 a year.
Burnham first proposed a universal system of social care in England in 2009, when he was health secretary. Yet previous leaders have failed to deliver lasting reform – Boris Johnson promised to “fix the crisis once and for all” in 2019, and Sir Keir Starmer scrapped an £86,000 cap on care costs in 2024. Now, with Age UK reporting that 2 million people are missing out on care, the pressure is on.
Separately, Burnham has also offered families on benefits £4,000 to let their children learn a trade, as part of efforts to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training.
