I benefitted from not paying NI from age 58 when I retired on my company pension. Not, as many pundits seem to assume, when I drew my state pension. This seems hardly fair. I don’t see why I shouldn’t pay NI on my pension income (over and above a tax/NI free threshold). There was an interesting stat a year or so back that, on average, those pensioners who have enough income to pay tax have larger incomes than the average working wage. So why exempt people like me from NI?
As Peter says merge them then we all pay. It would also address the fact that there is a ceiling on NI so in percentage terms it falls heaviest on the lower paid. Meanwhile I, and millions like me, escape this tax raid (or necessary fund raising) unscathed.
Provision might need to be made at the margins for pensioners at the lower end but compared to the burden falling totally on working people alone it surely wouldn’t be impossible to finesse.
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Tax rise new
Tax rise new
