Taxation: Healthcare Insurance

Lord Flight Excerpts

Thursday 9th June 2011 Lords Chamber

Asked By

[Lord Flight]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will exclude the provision of healthcare insurance by an employer for an employee as a taxable benefit in kind.

[The Commercial Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Sassoon)]

My Lords, the Government have no plans to introduce a new tax exemption for private healthcare insurance where it is provided as a benefit in kind.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Flight]

My Lords, will the Government look into the financial arithmetic here, which, on my estimates, could produce a benefit to the NHS of some £3 billion per annum? The data are quite confusing, because there is the question of how many people in total have had and still have private health insurance and how much is provided by employers. I well recollect that back in 1997, when employer-provided insurance became a benefit in kind, in the case of my company all those other than the top earners withdrew from the scheme because they did not want to have tax bills when they might not necessarily use the scheme. My estimate of the £3 billion saving—

[Noble Lords]

Too long!