London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Treasury to decide how much of social care levy goes to NHS after 2025

Treasury to decide how much of social care levy goes to NHS after 2025

In first three years, less than one pound in six will go to social care sector, then chancellor will allocate
The chancellor will decide what proportion of the £12bn annual proceeds from the health and social care levy will go to the NHS after 2025, legislation published by the government confirms.

MPs approved the government’s plan for a 1.25-percentage-point rise in national insurance contributions in a House of Commons vote on Wednesday, but full details of how it will operate were only published on Thursday, in a new health and social care levy bill.

The leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, announced that MPs would be asked to pass the legislation in a single day, next Tuesday.

Just £5.4bn will go to the social care sector over the next three years – less than one pound in six of the revenue from the new tax.

After that, the bill says the proceeds of the levy will be allocated “in such shares as between health care and social care, and in such shares as between England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as the Treasury may determine”.

In practice, implementing the new £86,000 lifetime cap on social care costs, and a more generous system of means testing for patients with modest assets, will mean social care starts to absorb more of the revenue from the tax from autumn 2023.

But the government has not published any modelling of how rapidly the proportion devoted to social care will rise – and the health secretary, Sajid Javid, has declined to set out any details.

Social care leaders are concerned that the NHS will continue to absorb the vast majority of the proceeds from the new tax.

Nadra Ahmed, the executive chairman of the National Care Association, which represents independent care operators, said: “This is a recovery plan for the NHS and that is very obvious. The funding pot being talked about for social care is not sufficient to even address the issues of today.”

The prime minister’s official spokesman has insisted the proportion going to social care will increase over time, saying the NHS is currently facing a short-term “bow wave” of pressure, caused by the estimated 8 million people who did not come forward for treatment during the pandemic.

But Javid has declined to say whether the backlog can be cleared in three years, and cutting NHS funding after 2025 could prove politically challenging.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank warned this week that “an ever-growing NHS budget could swallow up all of this week’s tax rise, leaving little for social care”.

The Treasury has traditionally resisted the process of legally ringfencing the proceeds of a tax, but the government believes the new tax will make the increase more acceptable to voters.

The care minister, Helen Whatley, was challenged about the issue in interviews on Thursday. She insisted extra resources were already going into the creaking social care system.

“Over the pandemic, an extra £6bn has gone to local authorities, which they have been able to use for social care. We have directed £2bn specifically into the extra infection control costs for social care during the pandemic,” she said.

“We are directly actively supporting social care right now. But what this is about is those big reforms to social care that everyone has been calling for so long.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×