Prime Minister Andy Burnham has warned that the NHS will collapse unless action is taken to fix the social care system in England. However, he refused to put a timeline on introducing care reforms during his first major interview since entering No 10.
NHS and social care
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Burnham said the NHS will never get back “to good waiting time standards until we fix social care”. He added: “I can’t put a timeline on it right here, right now. If we don’t do it, the NHS will collapse under the weight of trying to care for people who’ve not really needed to end up in the NHS system.”
Unlike NHS care, social care is not free at the point of use, and high costs can force people to sell their homes to pay for care. People with savings worth more than £23,250 are not entitled to help from their local council.
Unfinished business
Reform of social care is unfinished business for Mr Burnham, who set out plans while serving as health secretary under Gordon Brown. His 2010 proposals to create a national care service for England were halted by the Conservatives, who accused Labour of planning a “death tax” to pay for it.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has written to Mr Burnham challenging him to rule out tax rises or increased borrowing to fund social care reform. The Prime Minister is expected to make an intervention on social care, youth unemployment, and devolution in the coming days.
Welfare and benefits
Mr Burnham also said the government must get “really serious” about reducing the benefits bill, pointing to high housing benefit spending. He indicated ministers could tighten conditions for receiving support while insisting more should be done to help people into work.
He said mental health support should be provided “in work” but warned against “crude cuts” to reduce welfare spending. “I think we’ve got to get really serious as a country at getting the welfare bill down,” he said, noting that selling off social and council homes since the 1980s had led to high housing benefit costs. “The building of new council and social homes over time will help get that benefit bill down in a fair and sustainable way.”
He added: “I think the thing I’m just pushing back on is this idea that we go to a kind of crude approach, crude cuts to benefits to get the welfare bill down. Often that just pushes people into even more crisis and then even more public spending in another part of the system. We need a system that sets people up for success rather than pays for failure.”
No early election
Mr Burnham ruled out an early general election, saying he would not force voters to go to the polls before 2029. “I’m going to rule it out. Yeah, there’s no early general election, I don’t think people want it,” he told the BBC.
