Andy Burnham has pledged to overhaul England’s social care system, describing it as deeply unfair and calling for better pay and conditions for care workers. Readers broadly agreed that care is underfunded and staff are underpaid, but debated how a lasting reform should be financed without placing disproportionate pressure on lower-income households or younger people.

Comments questioned whether pledges to make carers among society’s best-paid workers were realistic, particularly while the government maintains commitments not to raise income tax, National Insurance or VAT. Suggested funding options included taxing wealth and large corporations more effectively, levies on housing wealth or estates after death, and a proposed 1.8 per cent charge on people over 34; critics argued that private care costs are already unaffordable and that any solution would require clear trade-offs.