ADDITIONAL taxes to fund social care in England are backed by just under a quarter of the public, research from the Health Foundation revealed today.

The think tank found younger people are less likely to support this approach, as Prime Minister Andy Burnham has outlined fixing the adult social care system as one of his top priorities.

Mr Burnham said in July that “difficult, difficult decisions” concerning taxes could be on the cards to deal with current problems in social care in England.

MPs returning to Westminster today following the summer recess will be tasked with addressing the failures of successive governments in what Mr Burnham called a “major dereliction of public duty.”

About 23 per cent of the 2,238 people surveyed by the Health Foundation in May said they backed the idea of an additional tax to fund social care.

But just 12 per cent of 20 to 44 year-olds said they supported the idea, while almost a third (32 per cent) of people aged over 55 were in favour of it.

Other options such as an increase in income tax were supported by 16 per cent, inheritance tax by 15 per cent or a rise in National Insurance by 14 per cent.

And almost a fifth of respondents (18 per cent) said they opposed the government increasing spending on social care at all.

The think tank found social care ranked third in the list of voter priorities at 22 per cent, down from 25 per cent the previous year.

It ranked slightly below military spending (24 per cent) and well below voters’ top priority on public spending, the NHS (60 per cent).

Researchers said that while “an overwhelming majority of the public support a greater role for the state in covering the costs of people’s social care,” views are “mixed on how to fund any increase in spending, which underlines the political challenge of enacting reform.”

Chairing a commission on the subject, Baroness Louise Casey launched an online public consultation this summer calling for views on what the care system should look like and how it should be funded.

Age UK charity director Caroline Abrahams said: “We know that politicians have often baulked at the cost of social care reform, but in doing so they ignore the fact that millions of people are paying vast amounts of money for care now.”