Readers discuss the implications of the a 2p cut in national insurance and how long we’ll work to pay for it (Picture: Simon Walker / No 10 Downing Street)
In theory, Jeremy Hunt’s 2p tax cut sounds great for most of us – the average worker will save around £450 a year as the rate falls from 10% to 8%. But, at what cost?
In today’s MetroTalk one reader lays out what we stand to lose and how we’ll all end up paying for it later.
Meanwhile, readers wonder why we pay so much tax, contribute less to defence, have a vape tax that won’t kick in for another two years and how to regulate the shocking condition of privately rented housing.
Share what you think about these topics in the comments.
‘What we don’t pay now – we’ll pay as pensioners’
(Credits: Getty Images/Westend61)
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt raided the National Insurance pot as part of his election strategy, cutting the rate from ten to eight per cent (Metro, Thu).
This reverses previous NI hikes that had taken place. What had also taken place was an increase to the state pension age – from 60 to 66 for women and 65 to 66 for men.
The NI reduction means less money for the NHS and social care, with workers picking up the tab by working even longer as the pensionable age increases even more in the future – to 67 for men and women by 2028 and then further still.
Jeremy Hunt’s 2p NI cut enables the Conservatives to carry on with their line of being the party of tax cuts, while continuing to boast about getting more people in work since they gained power. Alan, Forest Hill
Should we scrap NI altogether?
Should we just adjust income tax? (Credits: Shutterstock / Dan Jardine)
Instead of slowly eating away at NI, surely it would be more cost effective to simply scrap it altogether and adjust income tax rates accordingly.
That would generate huge savings in the civil service and reduce business costs, with there being one less tax to administer.
As for the £3.4billion for NHS IT upgrades, is this investment going to put an end to the hours of wasted time – and money – caused by current systems, with hospitals and GPs in different health regions constantly having to ask for test results and records to be emailed between them because, even using the same basic system, they do not link?
For example, if you have an X-ray at Mount Vernon Hospital in Northwood, your GP in Watford some five miles away does not have access to the result until they ask for it to be emailed – which is a crazy waste of time and resources. Alan, Watford
They’ll even tax you when you’re dead
It’s right that Jeremy Hunt calls NI ‘double taxation’ and speaks of ‘unfairness’.
But the reality is that we have many more forms of taxation on top of that. As much as 20 per cent of your outgoings will immediately be sliced off as VAT.
You’ll pay an additional duty on fuel, plus road tax. Then there’s stamp duty – if you manage to afford a house – and capital gains tax if you manage to sell it.
You’ll face corporation tax if you start a company. Even the puny interest on your savings is taxed. Then, it all gets taxed again at 40 per cent when you die. Oliver W, Pimlico
The number of people who lose on starved public services is greater than those who gain from tax cuts. Anthony, Fulham
Hunt didn’t Tax vapes soon enough
What do you think about The Budget? (Picture: Getty)
The Budget wasn’t creative enough. One example is vapes. The taxes Mr Hunt imposed won’t kick in until in 2026, but vapes already cause huge damage to youngsters and litter the street, resulting in clean-up costs. Previous chancellors would have tackled vaping by taxing to the hilt – it’s a shame Jeremy didn’t do so, too. Andrew Edwards, Islington
No money for defence?
The chancellor said his Budget was for long-term growth and better public services – but very little extra money is being spent on defence.
The first duty of any government is to protect its population from harm.
With countries such as Russia, North Korea and China spending so much more money on defence, why is it that Britain and many of its European neighbours are only spending little more than two per cent of their GDP, if even that?
If Britain and its Nato allies have to face a better-armed opponent in a wider war in Europe, or World War III, we would be very hard pressed to defend ourselves, such is the perilous state of our defences. The government will then regret not spending a lot more money on defence. Al Charlton, via email
Given that, after four months, we the UK, the US and eight other countries – not including France, Spain and Italy, who chickened out – have been singularly ineffective in putting an end to the attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea by a ragtag bunch of rebels in Yemen, it doesn’t bode well for the chances of the civilised world should (as looks increasingly possible) it come to a showdown between us and rogue states – Russia and Iran foremost among them.
What we are seeing is almost a mirror image of the failure of the civilised world to nip fascism in the bud in the 1930s, which led to six years of global conflict.
Vladimir Putin, Iran’s Ali Khamenei et al see our failure to take decisive actions against them as a sign of weakness, just as Hitler took it as a green light to go ahead with his plans for the domination of Europe when we allowed him to destroy Czechoslovakia and annex Austria unopposed.
One would have thought by now that the world had learned that appeasing bullies does not work – it only encourages them.
Russia’s genocidal war in Ukraine is now in its THIRD year – for that very reason. Bob Readman, Sevenoaks
METRO TALK – HAVE YOUR SAY
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How to control the private rental market
Further to the harm caused by the shocking condition of some private rentals (MetroTalk, Thu), why aren’t all properties in the rental sector recorded on a local authority register?
Each would have to display a certificate and each year, say, 15 per cent would randomly be inspected by the council. Failing an inspection would result in a rectification order and a fine.
Controlling the private rental market would seem one of the easier problems to solve! Tim, Sonning
What about vacant properties? If only we could rely on someone to bring empty, rotting homes into the public sector.
There is a house in my street whose owner lives abroad. No agency will rent it out because it is so neglected.
Its roof is leaking into neighbouring properties, one of which belongs to a housing association. The garden is too overgrown for the postman to reach the front door.
Neither the housing association, the local councillors nor the local MP can be bothered to do anything about it.
I imagine squatters might do a better job of returning it to habitable condition. Valerie, Lewisham
Dan Wootton has quite GB news to launch his own ‘independent platform'(Picture: GB News)
Dan Wootton has quit GB News after his show was found to have breached Ofcom rules (Metro, Wed). Good riddance.
News stations are rife with divisive presenters spouting mean, unfounded views, while masquerading as journalists.
I’m glad I grew up with Trevor McDonald, Edward R Murrow, and Walter Cronkite, who didn’t have an axe to grind and just informed us of the world’s happenings with dignity. Rogers Garey, Croydon
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