Two-thirds of Brits support an increase in National Insurance contributions to help fix the social care funding crisis.
A poll by Ipsos Mori also revealed that 49% of people want the Government to increase spending on public services, even if that means higher taxes or more borrowing.
Ministers floated the idea of putting up NI to pay for social care reform earlier this year and more detail on the Government’s proposals is expected next month.
It is more than two years since Boris Johnson stood outside Downing Street and promised he had a plan to fix the crisis once and for all.
But the NI move would mean the Tories breaking a manifesto pledge not to raise taxes to pay for public spending.
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Gideon Skinner, head of politics at Ipsos Mori, said: “Even though it might have been dampened by the pandemic, there is still some appetite amongst Brits for more spending on public services.
“In particular, they can be persuaded to support tax rises that will be used to pay for improvements to public services, with proposals to raise National Insurance to pay for social care reform or to clear the NHS backlog.
“Even past Conservative supporters are in favour of these, although young people are slightly less supportive of the rise than older groups.”
Support for increased public spending - either through higher taxes or borrowing - has “slipped” from 66% at the end of 2018 to 56% just before the 2019 election.
It now stands at just under half - 49% - in favour of increased public spending.
There is a partisan divide, with 74% of 2019 Labour voters wanting more spending, compared with only 40% of 2019 Conservative supporters.
The poll also shows approximately two in three - 64% - would support a 1% increase in National Insurance contributions to help pay for social care reform, while 65% would support the same rise to reduce the backlog in the NHS caused by the pandemic.
