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.
Share this..
Related stories
A third of Brits could not cope with base rate rise
16/01/2015 A new survey from loan.co.uk has shown that a third of Britons don’t think their finances could cope with a rise in the mortgage base rate. Loan.co.uk conducted a study by asking 2,000 people how an increase would impact on their monthly budget. 21% of people said a rise would affect their disposable income quite a lot, and 7% said it would have a significant impact. 22% of peop...
Read More'Windfall tax not a deal breaker'
Gordon Brown must be a very relieved man today after he heard a number of his cabinet colleagues 'call off the dogs' in pursuit of the ever richer energy companies in the UK. There was widespread speculation that the PM faced a serious revolt from within the cabinet after refusing to introduce a windfall tax on the energy companies but the situation seems to have calmed - at least for the time be...
Read MoreVirgin Money looking to create an instant branch network
Virgin Money's new chairman Brian Pitman has today hit the ground running with a suggestion that the company is interested in acquiring branches which will at some stage be sold off by Lloyds bank and Royal Bank of Scotland. These branch selloffs were part of the EU agreement which allowed the UK government to bail out the two companies and it looks as though Brian Pitman, the former chairman of L...
Read MoreSave money and improve your health
Even though many people believe that the UK recession is coming to an end there are still many more months of pain and suffering ahead for a large section of the UK population. However, this offers the perfect opportunity to cut back on luxuries such as takeaways, meals out and general excesses which could be deemed to be unhealthy. At the same time, as well as saving money on your monthly budget...
Read MoreUK tax credit leaflet withdrawn from circulation
As the UK authorities look to simplify the tax credits system they have been forced to withdraw a new leaflet explaining how overpayments occur, despite only being released last week. It would appear that the information contained in the leaflet is incorrect and does not given the overall picture with regards to overpayments.
Many people will be surprised to learn that even if you f...