I try to look at the world as it actually is, not how I personally feel it should be.
90% of people have an income less than £56k pa. Where this income is from work it approximates to the level at which NI stops. But if the income is derived from pensions or investments then no NI will be payable. This seems anomalous.
NI is simply another tax and most pensioners pay no NI. Where the burden of tax falls is a political and social judgement, as is the choice of which services are funded through taxation vs private provision.
The argument that "we paid in so we should get our share out" is flawed - it would perversely lead to a conclusion (for instance) that the elderly should not benefit from medical advances and drugs development they have not contributed to (IMHO undesirable).
Tax raised has always been for current expenditure, not saved to fund future commitments.
There are wealth differentials. The top decile (10%) has an average wealth of £2.4m - of which £0.8m is property and £1.1m pension wealth. The top 10% of income earners pay 61% of total income tax raised. Including NI, VAT, council tax, fuel duties etc is complex - the wealthy probably pay more, but possibly a lesser proportion of their total income.
Some see the very wealthy as an easy target to fund tax increases. This is just an illusion - if you have £10m or more you:
(a) can pay for lawyers and accountants to reduce your tax bill,
(b) move overseas,
(c) are unlikely be concerned about bills of a few £k a week should you need private care
In conclusion - most agree the care system does not work well and the NHS needs extra "catch up funding". The debate is really about who pays. The proposition that we should make the wealthy pay does not bear objective scrutiny.
The reality is that the problem affects all of us:
- those on low incomes will pay little or nothing, and get care provision for free
- most of us will pay something and we will mostly all benefit
The very wealthy can either avoid payment or pay for private care - as they already do for education, healthcare, anyway.
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Tax rise new
Tax rise new
