A new tax on income to fund social care is among the plans drawn up by officials for Andy Burnham to consider in his first weeks in office.
Civil servants have developed proposals that would require workers to make mandatory contributions to a new privately managed fund to pay for their care in later life.
The plans, drawn up by officials in the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), could fund a new care system costing £18bn a year.
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The options drawn up by DHSC include a new levy on income, which could be set at 1.8 per cent of earnings above £6,240, paid by workers over the age of 34.
Unlike National Insurance, which funds current government spending, the fund would be invested on behalf of working-age people to use for the cost of care when their cohort reaches old age.
The fund would be supplemented by wealthier elderly people, who on top of paying the new levy would pay for between 10 and 45 per cent of their own costs, depending on the value of their assets.
The idea emerged after Mr Burnham’s team told DHSC that reform to the social care system in England would be a major focus of his administration.
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The latest idea was first proposed in April by Re:State, a public services think tank for which Mr Burnham recently served as an adviser.
A paper published by the group proposed mandatory contributions to a national fund, which would require an employee on a £50,000 salary to pay an extra £788 a year in tax, with an employee earning £80,000 paying an extra £1,327.
(UKR)
