Drivers facing threat of new toll roads The review is expected to signal other plans, including: A cap on the costs of personal care for the elderly, expected to be set at £75,000. Means-testing rules will also be relaxed to allow older people to keep more of their savings. A new flat-rate state pension of about £140 a week. The reform will see millions of higher earners lose out on future pension entitlement and pay more National Insurance. New moves to reduce the cost of child care for parents of children aged between two and four. Officials at the Treasury and Department for Transport have been conducting a "feasibility study on roads reform," looking at ways to use private finance to ease congestion and fund expansion of existing motorways. It is understood ministers have not yet agreed on a single plan for motorway reform, with several options under consideration. The most radical option discussed would see motorists charged different rates of road tax, depending on which roads they use. Those who use the motorway network would pay more, while those who stick to A-roads would get a discount. The two-tier road tax scheme would be administered using automatic number plate recognition technology, which is already being used to impose a new levy on foreign-owned lorries using British roads. However, Whitehall sources said that the two-tier tax option is "almost certain" not to be agreed between the Conservatives and Lib Dems in time for a January announcement. David Cameron has said he is open to leasing motorways to companies or investment funds, including "sovereign" funds controlled by oil-rich Gulf states. The leasing plan could mean private investors will spend billions improving and expanding the increasingly congested UK road network, the Prime Minister's aides believe. Jim Fitzpatrick, the Labour roads spokesman, accused ministers, of preparing to break its promise and introduce "road-tolling by stealth." A Department for Transport spokesman said the promise would be kept, but said ministers are looking at "schemes which would fund significant new capacity through tolling."