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UK raises taxes to tackle health, social care crisis

After spending huge amounts of money to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson is returning to an early pledge to address Britain's creaking social care system, where costs are projected to double as the population ages over the next two decades.

He also moved to try to tackle a backlog in Britain's health system, which has seen millions waiting months for treatment from the state-run National Health Service, after resources were refocused to deal with those suffering from the coronavirus.

British politicians have tried for years to find a way to pay for social care, though successive Conservative and Labour prime ministers have ducked the issue because they feared it would anger voters and their own parties.

Ignoring loud disquiet in his party, Johnson outlined what he described as a new health and social care levy that will see the rate of National Insurance payroll taxes paid by both workers and employers rise by 1.25 percentage points, with the same increase also applied to the tax on shareholder dividends.