Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the increased national insurance threshold on the cost of living for residents of (a) Harlow constituency and (b) the UK.

In April 2020 the Government increased the Primary Threshold (PT) and the Lower Profits Limit (LPL), the point at which employees and the self-employed start paying the main rate of National Insurance contributions, by over £850 to £9,500. While HM Treasury does not publish tax information at constituency level, at the national level this was a tax cut for 31 million working people, saving the typical employee about £104 and a typical self-employed person about £78 in 2020/21. From April 2021, the PT/LPL will increase to £9,568.