Single-lever policy simulation · public services

Social care minimum pay

£12.71/hr£15.00/hr10-year projection

This report models the effect of raising social care pay from £12.71/hr to £15.00/hr — with every other government policy left unchanged — on social care, projected over 10 years.

Bottom line

Improves Social care staffing and Hospital waits, with little downside in the model.

A single lever moved in isolation — which no real government does. Figures are modelled projections, not predictions. How the model works →

Direct effects

Social care staffing

mild improvement

Why: Care worker pay lagging the living wage is the central driver of the 150k+ vacancy crisis — each 1pp rise improves retention measurably

Effect develops over 1–2 years

Knock-on effects

Reached indirectly, as the direct effects propagate through the system. Ordering reflects how the effect spreads, not a literal sequence in time.

Hospital waitsslight
Model output — exact figures
Social care staffing7066 (-4)
Hospital waits6867 (-1)

Index points on a 0–100 scale. Lower is better for pressure metrics; higher is better for outcomes like GDP and satisfaction.

Social care minimum pay: £12.71/hr → £15.00/hr · Britain 2036