PM: ‘NHS will collapse’ without social care reform
Andy Burnham warned the BBC the NHS would collapse without social care reform but claimed he could not put a timescale on improvements.
In his first major interview since becoming prime minister, Burnham said he would not want to leave power without having made “substantial change” to the social care system.
The prime minister also floated the idea of stricter rules on claiming benefits, saying the government has to get serious about getting the welfare bill down.
Meanwhile, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has written to the prime minister asking him to rule out tax rises or higher borrowing to pay for social care reform.
Burnham told the BBC that if the government did not overhaul social care, the NHS would “collapse under the weight of trying to care for people who’ve really not needed to end up in the NHS system”.
But asked if he would come up with a new system before the next election, he said he “couldn’t put a timeline on it right here, right now”, but would invest “whatever political capital I have into fixing broken social care”.
Burnham first advocated a universal system of social care in England in 2009 when he was health secretary in Gordon Brown’s government.
Now prime minister, he is expected to give a speech on adult social care on Wednesday.
The BBC understands the PM will not be introducing any proposals for a new system in this speech, but will instead announce that he is speeding up the Casey Commission, an independent assessment which has been contemplating various solutions for social care.
But Burnham is keen to bring forward the timetable for Baroness Louise Casey, whose final recommendations are not expected until 2028.
Social care was on a lengthier route and I’ve brought it straight forward,” he told the BBC.
Adult social care helps people live more independently. This can be as simple as washing someone or helping them with household tasks.
The NHS is free at the point of use, social care is not. If you have savings of more than £23,250, you will not get aid from your council in England or Northern Ireland towards the cost of your care.
The qualifying rules are different for Wales and Scotland.
Successive governments have struggled to deal with adult social care.
Sir Keir Starmer was branded ‘weak’ two years ago when Labour abandoned plans to limit lifetime social care contributions in England at £86,000.
In her letter to Burnham, Badenoch said that “any solution to the issues around social care must also be fair to those who have made provisions and saved up over the course of their lives”.
Welfare reform
The prime minister also spoke about the topic of benefits in his interview.
He claimed he could “tighten the conditions on people needed to receive benefits”, telling the BBC he believed “there are people out there who, with the right support, can go into work”.
“It’s about changing the nature of the support and making some of the support conditional on people taking opportunities that are put in front of them,” he continued. So you might raise the bar you need to clear to get rewards.
He said he would not ‘immediately be pointing the finger’ at people on benefits, adding ‘there are people in the benefits system, young people in their 20s who have been quite seriously let down because the support wasn’t there for them when it should have been there’.
In the wide-ranging interview, the prime minister also spoke about how he would be prepared to stand up to Donald Trump in defence of Britain’s national interest.
On a brighter note, Burnham was asked if his dog Axel would be going into Number 10 Downing Street.
He said ‘Axel would have to stay up north’ as he wouldn’t get on with Larry the Cat.
He added Axel, who is half bichon frise, half poodle, has “had that angry little man thing going on”. “I don’t believe the public would thank me if I brought Axel down to disturb Larry’s world,” he joked. “These are the big considerations. The significant judgements they’ve made.”