Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to provide tax incentives to firms and employers paying the living wage to all their workers.

The Government wants to move from a low wage, high tax, high welfare society to a higher wage, lower tax, lower welfare society. As the Chancellor announced at the Summer Budget, a new National Living Wage (NLW) will be introduced from April 2016. This will apply to all people over the age of 25, and will directly benefit 2¾ million people.

At the same time, the government is increasing the employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) employment allowance from £2000 to £3000. This will reduce the costs of employment for businesses and charities and will mean that a business can employ four people full time on NLW and pay no employer NICs.