Funding social care should draw on older people's wealth rather than taxes on younger workers
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/pollytoynbee. "In Liverpool I saw the tough choices Louise Casey faces on social care – starting with who will pay? | Polly Toynbee | The Guardian." October 13, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
Social care in England is failing, and fixing it will cost money. Toynbee argues that since older people hold most of the wealth and are the ones needing care, they should pay more from their own assets rather than making younger workers, many of whom can't afford homes, pay higher taxes so that inheritances stay protected.
Conclusion
Louise Casey's social care reforms should ask older people, who hold most of the nation's wealth and are the main users of care, to contribute more through their own assets, rather than shifting the cost onto younger working-age taxpayers.
Premises
- England's social care system is in a dire state: people receive too little help, home-care visits are cut because users cannot afford them, and care workers are underpaid, while even council-run homes such as Millvina House have a history of serious failings.
- Privatisation of social care was misguided: it gave providers an incentive to cut costs and pay low wages, and the state ended up with a far higher bill (residential care costs rose from £20m in 1979 to £459m in 1986).
- Better-funded, publicly or voluntarily run care, including more home care, would be better and potentially cheaper than residential care, but it costs more to deliver properly and needs a sustainable funding source.
- Overwhelmingly, older people hold most of the country's wealth, so the people needing care are better able to pay for it than working-age taxpayers.
- Younger workers, many unable to afford a home and facing a worsening wealth gap driven by inherited wealth, would be asked to pay more tax so that others can pass on property to their children, which raises a problem of generational justice.
Assumptions
- Generational fairness is a legitimate and important criterion for designing the care funding system.
- Wealth held by older people, particularly housing wealth, can feasibly and fairly be drawn on, for example through capped liabilities, lump sums, liens or opt-out levies.
- Older users' wealth is a proper source of funding even when it reduces inheritances for their children.
- Casey's report will follow the evidence on wealth distribution and is willing to challenge political resistance, such as Tory inheritance tax promises.
- A national care service can be funded without relying mainly on general taxation of working-age people.
- Insourcing to the public sector improves quality without unsustainable cost.