Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) implications for revenue and (b) potential merits of extending employee national insurance contributions to people over the age of 65.

The “Estimated costs of principal tax reliefs” publication sets out that the estimated cost of the exemption of those over State Pension age (SPa) from paying National Insurance contributions (NICs) was about £1.1bn in 2019-20. However, this does not take account of any behavioural changes as a result of the relief and, in practice, if it were withdrawn, taxpayers’ behaviour could alter so that the actual yield would be very different from, and often smaller than, that shown in the tables:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs.

As with all taxes,the Treasury keeps National Insurance Contributions under review.