There is no social care levy. The Health and Social Care Levy was announced in 2021, implemented as a temporary National Insurance increase from 6 April 2022, reversed on 6 November 2022, and the Act that created it was repealed. The separate 1.25% levy that was to start in April 2023 never came into force. Anyone still budgeting for one is budgeting for a tax that does not exist.
What was announced
The plan had two stages. First, a temporary increase of 1.25 percentage points to National Insurance — applying to Class 1, Class 1A, Class 1B and Class 4 contributions — from 6 April 2022. Second, from 6 April 2023, that increase would be removed and replaced by a standalone Health and Social Care Levy at 1.25%, charged as a separate tax and extending to the earnings of people over state pension age who do not pay National Insurance.
The second stage is the part people remember and the part that never happened.
What actually happened
The NIC increase took effect on 6 April 2022 as planned. It was then reversed with effect from 6 November 2022, part-way through the tax year. The Class 1 employee rate went from 13.25% back to 12%, the employer rate from 15.05% back to 13.8%, and the additional rate returned to 2%.
The government confirmed at the same time that the 1.25% levy would not come into force as a separate tax from 6 April 2023.
The legal position was then tidied up properly rather than left as a policy statement. The Health and Social Care Levy Act 2021 was repealed by the Health and Social Care Levy (Repeal) Act 2022, which received Royal Assent on 25 October 2022. Section 1 repealed the 2021 Act; section 2 dealt with the transitional NIC rates for 2022/23, which is why that year has a blended rate.
So this is not a suspended or deferred tax. The enabling legislation is gone.
Where National Insurance actually stands
This is the part that causes confusion, because the rates today are not the rates that were restored in November 2022. Later measures changed them again — employee contributions were cut and the employer rate raised. For 2026/27, on category A:
- Employee — nil between the lower earnings limit and the primary threshold, 8% from the primary threshold to the upper earnings limit, 2% above it;
- Employer secondary — 15%;
- Primary threshold — £242 a week, £1,048 a month, £12,570 a year;
- Secondary threshold — £96 a week, £417 a month, £5,000 a year;
- Upper earnings limit — £967 a week, £4,189 a month, £50,270 a year;
- Employment Allowance — £10,500.
The comparison worth drawing: the 2022 levy would have taken employee contributions to 13.25% and employer to 15.05%. Today's rates are 8% and 15%. The employer burden is close to where the levy would have put it, reached by a different route — a much lower secondary threshold at £5,000 rather than a percentage uplift. For a business with many lower-paid employees, that structural change costs more than the levy would have.
Why the question keeps coming back
Social care funding remains unresolved, so the search term persists. Two things are worth saying carefully.
First, there is no announced replacement levy and no current commitment to reintroduce one that can be pointed to in legislation or a published policy document. Planning on the basis that one is coming is speculation, not forecasting.
Second, the reversal left a genuine oddity in the record. Employers who operated the 2022/23 blended rates, and anyone reconciling payroll across that year, are dealing with a tax year that has two rate periods in it — which still surfaces occasionally in historic payroll corrections and in due diligence on acquisitions covering that period.
What employers should take from it
Nothing to action on the levy itself. What does deserve attention is the current employer cost base, because the changes that did stick are more expensive for some businesses than the levy would have been. The secondary threshold at £5,000 means employer contributions start early, and the 15% rate applies to everything above it with no upper limit.
The reliefs that reduce that bill are worth checking rather than assuming: the Employment Allowance, which must be claimed every year and does not roll forward; the zero-rate category letters for veterans, freeport and investment zone employees and others; and salary sacrifice, which reduces the earnings on which contributions are calculated rather than the rate applied to them.
Acumon handles employer National Insurance, category letters and the reliefs attached to them through payroll management and employment tax work, with a payroll audit where the position has never been tested. If you have never checked whether your payroll is using the right category letters, that is usually worth more than any levy would have cost.