Will the rise in national insurance affect the NHS?
The Conservative party has today stepped into the row regarding a 1% increase in national insurance from 2011. While there is no doubt that the move will raise billions of pounds for the UK government, allowing them to strengthen the UK plc balance sheet, many people have overlooked the fact that the NHS is the U.K.'s biggest employer. A 1% increase in national insurance will increase the wage bill by £446 million and take it well over £45 billion a year.
In many ways it seems as though the UK government is willing to grab any additional funding from any parties in the UK, although it may well have overlooked the potential impact on the NHS. It is believed that a rise of £446 million in national insurance costs for the NHS equates to roughly 14,000 NHS employment positions - with concerns that job losses could follow. This would be at odds with Alistair Darling's claim to protect frontline UK public sector services such as the NHS and could cause something of a political storm "after the next election".
The 1% increase in national insurance will have an impact across the board, increasing the cost of running a business and will ultimately, although the government would deny this, lead to cost savings which often means job cuts.
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