Britain’s biggest pensioner organisation, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) has criticised leaked reports of Conservative party plans to merge national insurance (NI) with income tax if they win the next election.
Dot Gibson, NPC general secretary said: “Around 4.5m pensioners currently pay income tax, but not national insurance. If it were included in the future, this would definitely push up the tax bills of older people.
“Not only that, but national insurance is the mechanism for both funding state pensions and also deciding who is qualified to receive them. There is even a separate NI fund, which currently has a surplus of over £22bn in it.
“This isn’t money for general use – but to pay for state pensions, other contributory benefits and a small amount towards the NHS. Merging income tax and NI together would therefore put all this in jeopardy and undo over a century of social insurance provision.
“It has to be seen as a way of reducing tax by the backdoor, rather than ensuring we have proper provision for those in later life.”
