As we've been reporting, a new health and social care tax is being introduced to help the NHS recover from the Covid pandemic and improve social care in England.

But there has been criticism - including from within the Conservative Party - that it will be unfair on younger people.

The Resolution Foundation says the tax rises won't be paid by some rich retirees and will prioritise wealthy landlords over their tenants.

But the government has said people will no longer be forced to sell their own homes during their lifetime and or face "catastrophic" costs.

So what will it cost you? Read more here.

There is not enough in the government's social care plans to help retain staff in the sector, Joyce Pinfield, of the National Care Association, says.

She told BBC Breakfast: "We have over 100,000 vacancies in the workforce in social care and this is just getting greater on a daily basis.

"It's exacerbated, of course, by Brexit, by EU workers going back and then not returning and if we want to bring people in from abroad to work in the sector we have to go through many hoops.

"This is not helping us in any way to increase the workforce to make sure that we can give a good quality of care.

"At present we are losing quite a number of our staff going to the NHS. The NHS is valued more, their pay is more and so it is very attractive to our care workers at present to move from social into the NHS or even into other sectors, where they don't have the responsibility, such as hospitality and retail sectors."

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said earlier that a £500m training fund was part of the new package for the care sector.

Image source, Getty Images

A rise to National Insurance to pay for health and social care will hit jobs and stifle growth, the Federation of Small Businesses in Wales has warned.

Wales would receive a "union dividend" of £700m a year more to spend by 2024/25, Boris Johnson told MPs.

But the Welsh government said the announcement was severely lacking in detail - and business leaders say it is "the worst news at the worst time".

National Insurance is paid by both employers and workers.

Ben Cottam, head of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in Wales said: "Businesses are already struggling to return to profitability from the pandemic... many businesses in the medium to long term will want to reassess their hiring requirements."

He told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast: "Businesses understand that somehow we have to recoup the cost of supporting businesses and the cost invested because of the pandemic, but this is not the way to do it because it stifles growth."

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

The Resolution Foundation, a think tank focusing on people on lower incomes, says the new funding system for health and social care is generationally unfair because the bulk of the money comes from working-age people.

Its chief executive, Torsten Bell, said: "The prime minister has turned his back on low taxes in favour of an NHS-dominated state.

"But while this new strategy fits well with the reality of a rapidly ageing and austerity-fatigued 21st Century Britain, the PM's new plan raises some major questions of fairness.

"The tax rises that will pay for a bigger NHS are generationally unfair, excluding rich retirees while prioritising wealthy landlords over their tenants.

"And while the social care cap will prevent people being hit with catastrophic costs, it will benefit southern households far more than those living in Red Wall seats."

It is expected that the vote over the new tax will go the government's way later - though that doesn't mean the Tory backbenchers are entirely happy.

Despite few Conservative voices of objection in the Commons on Tuesday, one Conservative MP described the plans to the BBC as "too vague", another as a "tax on jobs".

Tory MPs who are opposed to the plans are divided over tactics ahead of today's parliamentary vote, BBC Newsnight's political editor Nick Watt reports.

One leading critic is circulating a letter on a Tory MPs’ WhatsApp group calling for them to rebel and vote against the plan.

Another group, led by a former minister, is calling for MPs to abstain instead.

The former minister is advising his supporters, believed to number around 20, that if they vote against the plan on Wednesday they will also have to vote against it in the budget.

That would effectively amount to a no-confidence vote in the government.

Sajid Javid insists the Conservative Party remains "the party of low taxation" even as it plots a new levy on income to fund health and social care.

The health secretary tells the Today programme that, even with the change, the "tax burden" remains low.

He says: "That is still lower than France, Italy and Germany. We are still a low-tax country after this change, and we will always remain a low-tax country.

"But we are also a responsible Conservative government that believes passionately in the NHS and I think this package shows exactly the lengths we would go to to support the NHS."

Javid adds the government should be judged for its "commitment to fiscal responsibility".

Image source, Getty Images

Elsewhere, Sajid Javid has spoken about Covid vaccination booster jabs for vulnerable adults.

He says he is "very confident" there will be a booster programme for coronavirus, but is awaiting advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

Javid tells Sky News: "In terms of who actually gets it and when, we're waiting for final advice which could come across, certainly, in the next few days from the JCVI."

He says the advice is expected to include information on whether people should get different vaccines to the ones they have already had or the same ones, and adds: "I'm confident that we can start the booster programme this month."

Javid also says the four Chief Medical Officers of the UK will be making a recommendation on whether all 12 to 15 year-olds can receive Covid vaccinations "in the next few days".

More now from Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who has been interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Presenter Nick Robinson highlights a change in rhetoric from Prime Minister Boris Johnson. He says Johnson used to describe his plans to solve the social care crisis as removing the fear of having to sell one's home - but now he says it removes the fear of "catastrophic costs".

"When it comes to catastrophic costs we estimate one in seven people pay more than £100,000 for their social care," says Javid. "This removes that lottery, that risk that could happen to anyone."

He says that no-one will have to sell their house in their lifetime thanks to a deferred payment scheme.

Asked about "hotel costs" - which will not be included in the £86,000 care costs cap - such as food and accommodation, Javid says it is "fair" to exclude these because "whether we need care or not, we all have to eat and we all have to have a roof over our heads".

The BBC has spoken to two women impacted by the social care crisis, Sharon and Edith.

Sharon and her family are struggling to pay for her elderly mother’s care after the money put together from selling the family home ran out.

Edith is a young disabled woman who has been been forced to change care agency multiple times due to staff shortages.

Sajid Javid tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme he hopes the new £36bn package of funding will help the NHS meet its post-Covid challenges and "remove the risk" of catastrophic costs of social care.

The health secretary says he was told soon after his appointment that an estimated seven million people had stayed away from the NHS during the pandemic despite having symptoms.

He says he was warned waiting lists could have grown to 13 million people. "I'm the health and social care secretary, I cannot accept that, I cannot be in a situation where that happens," he adds.

"Before the pandemic, the waiting list of those waiting more than one year was almost non-existent and now it is 300,000 - I cannot accept that," he says, adding that the package will fund new checks, scans, treatments, and the creation of "surgical hubs".

Health Secretary Sajid Javid has defended plans to provide social care with just £5.4bn of the £36bn raised through the new tax over the next three years.

Javid tells BBC Breakfast this is “because right now in the NHS with the waiting list where it is and where it is projected to go - that’s where we need resources".

The £5.4bn for social care includes £500m in workforce training, with more than £1bn for local authorities so they can “pay a fairer cost of care”.

Asked about criticism from the care sector to the proposals, Javid acknowledges a “staffing issue” in the industry. He says that there are other ways the government can influence salaries, such as a higher Living Wage.

Javid adds the government wants to create a “proper process of upskilling” the workforce and avoid the best care staff leaving to join the NHS.

Analysis: PM bets on imperfection over inactionpublished at 08:26 British Summer Time 8 September 2021

08:26 BST 8 September 2021

Laura Kuenssberg
Political editor

Boris Johnson has long believed that conventions are there to be broken. He's certainly done that.

A pair of election promises have been torn up. The Treasury's shaken off its traditional allergy to new specific taxes.

Highly significant changes are being made to the tax and health system without wide debate among ministers or the governing party.

Pensioners who keep working will pay national insurance for the first time.

And again, these decisions confirm Boris Johnson's credo includes being a big spender, if he deems the moment requires it.

Read more from Laura here

Image source, Getty Images

Firstly, let’s bring you up to speed on the details of the government’s plan to increase health and social care funding.

The proposal involves a big change to the way social care is funded in England - as well as how to solve a backlog within the National Health Service after Covid:

• A new 1.25% tax on income and profits next year through National Insurance - and then as a separate tax from 2023
• Ministers say this will raise £36bn over three years - £5.4bn for social care and the rest helping solve the NHS backlog
• People would no longer pay more than £86,000 in care costs - that is, for actual care, rather than accommodation - over their lifetime, from October 2023
• Those with between £20,000 and £100,000 in assets will get means-tested help towards costs from their local council
• People in this bracket will not have to contribute more than 20% of their eligible assets per year but might have to contribute from income
• Those who own assets worth less than £20,000 will not have to pay towards care costs from their assets at all, but might have to contribute from their income

Read more here.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage as MPs prepare to debate and vote on government plans for a new tax to fund health and social care in England.

The tax is intended to raise £36bn over three years - with all UK nations benefiting.

We’ll bring you all the latest developments as they happen throughout the day.