National Insurance hike to hit NHS workers hard

New analysis of the Prime Minister’s increase in national insurance contributions to fund health and social care will hit NHS and care workers with a £900 million tax bill.

Contributions are to increase by 1.25 percentage points to tackle the NHS backlog and pay for social care changes. An official analysis of the impact of the tax rise, performed by the House of Commons library, shows it will inflict a ‘terrible’ financial toll on health and social care workers and their families. The report suggests that they will pay 12 per cent of the £7.4 billion expected to be raised from employees through the tax rise. Nurses, care home staff and other health and social care workers will pay an additional £900 million in tax.

The figures do not include those working in the NHS or care who are self-employed, meaning the real impact is likely to be even greater.

The Liberal Democrats, which commissioned the analysis, said the findings exposed the fact the government was launching a ‘tax raid on NHS and care home heroes’ who are still risking their lives on the frontline of the pandemic.

Munira Wilson, the Liberal Democrats health spokesperson, said: “Boris Johnson’s broken manifesto promise amounts to a £900 million tax raid on our NHS and care home heroes. These are the nurses, ambulance drivers and care workers who worked day in day out to save lives on the frontline of the pandemic. Now their reward is to be hit with a tax bill worth hundreds of pounds, at a time when incomes are being squeezed by the cost of living crisis.

“The Conservatives must rethink this unjust tax hike that will disproportionately impact those on low and middle incomes. Their plans risk worsening the staffing crisis in our care homes instead of fixing it.”