PM Boris Johnson announces a UK-wide "health and social care levy" to address the funding crisis in the sector
The PM said at a Downing Street press conference that we "cannot shirk the challenge of putting the NHS back on its feet"
The new tax begins next April as a 1.25% rise in National Insurance and tax on share dividends, with a separate tax on earned income from 2023
Raising taxes instead of borrowing money prevents the burden being placed on future generations, says the PM
He earlier told MPs the move - which breaks a manifesto commitment - will raise almost £36bn over three years for frontline services
The plans place a cap on the amount individuals spend on their care, with taxpayers funding costs on top of this
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer calls the proposals "a sticking plaster over gaping wounds"
The changes will only apply in England, as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have separate arrangements for social care
The other three nations will receive an extra £2.2bn a year as a result of the new tax
As we've been reporting, Boris Johnson is said to be considering a 1.25 percentage point increase in National Insurance to pay for the social care reforms.
This rise would mean a person on a £30,000 average salary would pay an additional £255 per year.
For someone on £20,000 a year, the rise would be £130 - while someone on £80,000 would pay an extra £880.
Image source, Getty ImagesReports that Prime Minister Boris Johnson will raise National Insurance, a tax paid by workers and employers, to cover social care costs has sparked a backlash from Conservatives.
The Conservative party made a manifesto commitment not to raise NI, income tax or VAT during the 2019 general election.
Bishop Auckland Tory MP Dehenna Davison said this weekend “we absolute cannot go against this manifesto – as an election-winning manifesto we saw Conservatives swept in all over the country in areas like mine in the red wall”.
One cabinet minister has told the BBC a National Insurance hike is "the wrong thing to do, and the wrong way to go about it".
Tory former chancellors Lord Hammond, Lord Clarke and Lord Lamont have all criticised the plan, while former Conservative PM Sir John Major has called it "regressive".
Elsewhere, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has told Johnson his party will oppose plans to increase national insurance to fund social care.
And care home bosses fear income gained from the rise in NI will be consumed by the NHS without benefiting the social care sector.
Laura Kuenssberg
Political editor
A late night decision, but it sounds like this is part of the deal:
Pensioners in work will pay a health and social care levy - which makes it different to normal National Insurance.
We'll have to wait for more precise detail later.
One of the biggest unknowns is what support social care gets up front.
I'm told support will be phased in but it is not clear yet what happens while the NHS is the main beneficiary of the NI hike for first three years.
Image source, PA MediaCabinet members have begun arriving in Downing Street where the PM will present his plans to them
Image source, PA MediaTransport Secretary Grants Shapps tells reporters: "We are going to fix social care."
Image source, PA MediaWe'll be hearing from Sajid Javid, the health secretary, at a press conference expected later today
Image source, PA MediaIt's the first time that the cabinet has met in Number 10 since the start of the pandemic in March 2020
More questions for Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister. And again, few clues on the plans.
He tells the Today programme Boris Johnson is determined to bring a "deliverable" plan forward but does not give a direct answer as to whether the PM is wrong to say the social care problem can be dealt with without a tax rise.
He's then asked why he believes a young worker in a care home in Middlesbrough should pay more in tax to subsidise a wealthy pensioner in Surbiton.
It would be wrong and unwise for the vaccines minister to stray into how we pay for reforming social care, which is in real need of reform, he replies.
A frustrated Nick Robinson, the programme's co-presenter, finishes by asking if Zahawi actually knows what is in the plans.
Zahawi does not give a direct answer, saying instead the health secretary, chancellor and the PM have been "working very hard on this over past few months".
From his response, Robinson concludes that most of the Cabinet do not know what's in the plans.
Former Labour health secretary and current Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has been speaking about his alternative plan to fund adult social care.
He’s been telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he would like to see social care have an “NHS principle” – “everyone would be required to contribute, but everyone would benefit”.
His idea would be for all pensioners to make a contribution of 10% of their estate – topped up with contributions from taxes such as capital gains tax.
It would mean “for the vast majority of people they’d have peace of mind at a lower cost”, Burnham says.
“I don’t see how you can do this without asking pensioners to make a contribution,” he adds.
Let’s start with some basics. National Insurance is a tax paid on earnings and the profits of self-employed workers.
If you're employed by somebody, you'll start paying National Insurance when you're earning just under £10,000 a year.
Then, you'll pay 12% of earnings up to about £50,000 a year. Above that point you pay 2% of your earnings.
National Insurance is used to pay for the NHS, unemployment benefit, sickness and disability allowances, and the state pension.
We have heard from Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi, who tells BBC Breakfast the plans to "deal with a broken social care system" represent "truly historic and ambitious reform".
In his interview he does not offer too many clues about what might be in the PM's announcement.
Asked if he would back a 1.25% rise, he says, as a minister, he does not want to speculate.
When pressed on whether such a rise would be unfair pressure on low earners and young people, he says he won't comment on hypotheticals and it is not in his remit to deal with the finances of the government.
Any debate about the fact that an NI rise would break the Conservatives' manifesto pledge could take place once the plans had been set out, he adds.
He says the task of fixing a system that has been "broken for many decades" is not easy and will not be fixed "in five minutes" but he hopes Labour will get behind the plans.
"One-in-seven people pay £100,000 or more for their social care, so in my view that nettle has to be grasped," he says. “This prime minister will not shirk that responsibility.
"Our constituents who are suffering a broken system deserve better," he adds.
The prime minister will first present his plans to the cabinet this morning. He’ll then set out the details in a statement to the Commons.
Later in the day, we’re expecting him to be joined by Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid for a press conference. Stay with us for all the latest.
Laura Kuenssberg
Political editor
The government is expected to announce an increase in National Insurance, likely of 1.25%, to raise billions of pounds to pay for helping the NHS catch up with lost time and treatment after the pandemic, and to help improve and pay for social care in England.
I'm told the cash raised - potentially more than £12bn - will be ring-fenced somehow, targeted initially at the health service itself, then will switch to social care after three years.
Expect also promises of changes to how the system works, including limiting the amount that families have to pay for care if need it.
Read more from Laura here.
Image source, Getty ImagesEngland’s current social care system is intended to help older and working-age disabled people with day-to-day tasks such as washing, dressing, eating and medication.
According to think tank the King's Fund, local councils received 1.9 million requests for support in 2019-20, with 560,000 from working age adults and 1.4 million from older people.
According to the NHS, the gross current expenditure on adult social care by local authorities was £19.7bn in 2019-20.
Just under half of all expenditure on social care helps working-age adults, with the remainder spent helping people aged 65 years and over.
For working-age adults, the biggest cost is learning disability support, while for those of retirement age, physical support accounts for the biggest expenditure.
Welcome to our coverage as Boris Johnson prepares to set out his long-awaited plan for social care in England.
We’ll bring you all the latest updates and developments through the day.