SIR - When policy experts discuss how to raise additional government revenue to fund the rising cost of social care there is near unanimity that the worst way forward would be to increase National Insurance Contributions.

There are several downsides to increasing NIC, the most obvious being that it is regressive, hitting young workers harder than those both wealthy and retired.

Re-badging NIC as “the Health and Social Care Levy” should not allow the government to cover its tracks. The cynical Tory manifesto commitment not to increase taxation (nor NIC) boxed the government in so perhaps increasing NIC and re-badging it allows the government to claim it was breaking its manifesto commitment only in “a limited and specific way” .

What the government is doing comes across as a cheap, temporary fix. What the social care system needs is a thorough overhaul of their funding mechanism. A more principled, innovative government might have looked to bring in Land Value Taxation or re-introduce higher bands of income tax.

In the UK during the pandemic the number of billionaires has risen from 147 to 171, their total wealth up by 20per cent. These figures argue for greater taxation of wealth.

John Cole, Oakroyd Terrace, Baildon