Before turning to the pension triple lock changes, Burnham accepted he may “pay a political price” by trying to make the reforms but argued “someone has to go through the pain barrier and rip the plaster off”.
The triple lock was introduced in 2010 by the coalition government and designed to ensure the value of the state pension was not overtaken by the increase in the cost of living or the incomes of working people.
It means the state pension rates rise every April by either inflation, earnings growth or 2.5% – whichever is the highest.
Burnham said this will stay in place until 2030, at which point he would like to “adjust it”.
He said: “The state pension will continue to rise every year at least by prices or 2.5%. And it will hold its value relative to earnings over time so that pensioners will always share in the rising prosperity of the nation.
“But this change will generate significant savings which we will use to build up our national care service.
“Some may not realise it but older people with nothing more than the state pension, or only a little more, can find themselves paying care changes today from that small income. Under my plan, this will no longer happen.”
Officials have suggested the change could save £15bn a year by 2040.
Jonathan Cribb, deputy director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said savings “are likely to be relatively small in the first few years, but rise substantially over time”.
He also said “we should not expect this reform to save enough that it could fund universal social care in the next parliament”.
Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, told the she believed the government should have “pulled another lever”, such as a wealth tax, rather than making changes to the triple lock.
The political backlash was immediate.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said “more tax rises are inevitable” under Labour’s plan, while Reform UK’s Nigel Farage accused the PM of “launching an offensive against our elderly”.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said families “cannot wait until after another election and it can’t be funded from the pockets of our poorest pensioners”.