Could changes in pension tax relief potentially release funding for health and social care?

Could changes in pension tax relief potentially release funding for health and social care? Last week the Financial Times reported that the Chancellor is actively considering a radical reform of pension tax relief – an idea he trailed in last summer’s Budget. This week, Chief Executive of NHS England Simon Stevens called for a new ‘national consensus’ on a ‘properly resourced and functioning social care system’ – that would ideally be agreed in time to be a 70th birthday present for the NHS in 2018.

Meanwhile Norman Lamb, Alan Milburn and Stephen Dorrell – all respected former health ministers, and between them representing the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Conservatives – are agitating for some form of cross-party commission on future health and social care funding. A window of opportunity may be opening. The King's Fund