National Insurance: Employer Contributions

Baroness Scott of Bybrook Excerpts

Thursday 9th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I have heard a great deal from that side of the House about NICs. If we had not had to fill a £22 billion black hole, we would not have had to do it in the first place. None of us on this side of the House would have made that choice unless we had to. We recognise the need to protect small businesses and charities, which is why we have more than doubled the employment allowance to £10,500 and expanded it to all eligible employers. The OBR expects 250,000 employers to gain from the changes to the employment allowance and 840,000 to see no change at all. That is more than half of all businesses, including charities.

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)]

Is the Minister aware that the OBR has said recently that it assumes that most of the Government’s increases in national insurance costs will be passed directly on to workers and consumers? Do this Government still claim to serve the working people of this country, or will they now come clean and admit that they are raising taxes on ordinary working people?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The denial of responsibility from that side of the House is quite astonishing. Public services were broken by neglect from the party opposite for 14 years. I am surprised that they do not see the irony in complaining about the measures we are having to take to sort out that mess, including our commitment to an additional £680 million for social care, further funding for local government and a real-terms boost for local government funding. I would rather hear some other ideas from that side of the House than complaints about what we are doing.