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Original poster

New NI tax. How are people meant to afford this?

540 replies

OnTheBrink1 · 08/09/2021 18:51

We bought our house just before covid, got a mortgage that pushed us quite a bit but worked it all out and it’s been doable since then. We needed to push the mortgage quite a bit because we were upsizing to get an extra bedroom for the kids and a downstairs loo and in our area and from what we had before it was a jump.
Been managing since then but no progression opportunities in DH job during the last 18 months due to covid it seems as recruitment was largely paused.
However, now we will now have to pay an extra almost £900 per year on this new tax. £73 I make it.
We don’t have any benefits of any kind.
It’s going to be quite a struggle to afford the mortgage and still maintain the car (which is old but we need for work and kids stuff) plus all the usual bills and food. Kids are between 8-12 and need bus passes, constant uniform and all manner of expenses of course.
I mean we will struggle by but it’s going to be tough to afford that extra £73 a month when we had all the mortgage planned.
Just don’t get how they can bring it in so soon when it’s such an increase. How are others in a more difficult position going to afford this? People will be loosing their houses surely?

OP posts:
zenthoughtsonlythanks · 09/09/2021 07:47

What it proves is that Boris is no conservative! He has been splashing the cash from day one, and he is going to financially ruin this country if he carries on with this kind of incontinence.

He does not seem remotely in control of anything. Not the number of children he is having, nor the spending in his own flat, or the fiscal policy for this country.

This job really does seem well beyond him. To have chosen to go down this particular route, is so anti conservative, I doubt he will be forgiven for it. I imagine big names that donate to the party will start peeling off having realised there is no longer a conservative party to support!!

ChrisS36 · 09/09/2021 07:50

Sounds like you over mortgaged if things are that tight if it’s going up that much you must be a higher rate mortgage payer.
Sorry either make cut backs elsewhere or sell and move again.

ChrisS36 · 09/09/2021 07:50

Sounds like you over mortgaged if things are that tight if it’s going up that much you must be a higher rate mortgag payer.
Sorry either make cut backs elsewhere or sell and move again.

CustardCreamm · 09/09/2021 07:54

@Akire

Same with people lower end working with UC top up as wages low. Lose £20 week UC plus £20 month for extra NI so big drop of £100 for them

Agree with this.

MatildaIThink · 09/09/2021 07:54

@portico

The energy bills is the biggest swindle the government or the CMA has not stepped. Energy companies are a cosy oligopoly - similar prices and and always on the up. When they have reduced prices, I have never really felt the benefit.
We have some of the cheapest gas and electricity costs in Europe, in Germany or France it costs 20-30% more. The current price rises are due to a massive global increase in the cost of gas. This is why the UK needs both more renewable and more nuclear so that we are not reliant on the global gas supply, as well as being carbon neutral.
the80sweregreat · 09/09/2021 07:59

I haven't got the answers ; the problem is Labour voted against this and it'll be touted as ' Labour voted against money for the NHS ' when that isn't the case at all , they were only trying to highlight how unfair it is for ordinary people. Something that took me a while to get my head around.
A minister was on tv today saying it will go to the right places etc but I just do not believe them at all , i think we all know it won't because I am long past believing them. They need this money to plug the holes caused by giving to the likes of Diane Harding.

sbfptw · 09/09/2021 08:02

In 40 years time if you and yours are requiring care, will you reflect on this post. Does everyone think that money for such services magically appears. Perhaps we shouldn't be 'stretching it' when we take out a mortgage, or have contingency plans if we extend the mortgage for an extra lavatory...

Xenia · 09/09/2021 08:06

sb I would prefer fewer of those services to be provided and eg families to be obliged to pay or take on care as happens in Germany (and is the norm in many cultures abroad and in the UK) and in return half our tax bills.

zenthoughtsonlythanks · 09/09/2021 08:06

In 40 years time if you and yours are requiring care, will you reflect on this post

In forty years time we will be working until we drop, and there will be no such thing as funded care homes!

Anyone that thinks this is going to be feasible even into the medium term needs to look more closely at the toxic politics of making the young pay for the old, when the old are already extremely wealthy comparatively. We will be lucky to still have an NHS by then.

Original poster
OnTheBrink1 · 09/09/2021 08:16

@sbfptw

In 40 years time if you and yours are requiring care, will you reflect on this post. Does everyone think that money for such services magically appears. Perhaps we shouldn't be 'stretching it' when we take out a mortgage, or have contingency plans if we extend the mortgage for an extra lavatory...
I expect to use the house that I have stretched myself for to pay for my care. I take no benefits currently and plan to pay for all our elderly care too.
OP posts:
portico · 09/09/2021 08:16

@the80sweregreat

The daily Mail are reporting that a few new managers on six figure salaries will be recruited by the NHS. I'm sure these new taxes will all help to pay their salaries and pension contributions etc :( I know they are saying this money will go towards care , but I still feel a lot of it will end up elsewhere.
Agreed. I was a pen pusher in the NHS (for 2 years), and I know the largesse that I saw squandered - with very little hitting the frontline. That’s my issue with tax increases - it has to be filtered through a bureaucratic bubble before measly amounts feed into front line services. I prefer to freeze taxes, and let public sector bodies cut their cost according to size of their cloth input.
BeenAsFarAsMercyAndGrand · 09/09/2021 08:17

@portico

I wonder why the government hasn’t tried to claw back furlough money from furloughers now back in jobs
This is quite genuinely the stupidest suggestion I have heard on this topic, by quite a margin.
portico · 09/09/2021 08:20

What a stupid suggestion to proffer!

MatildaIThink · 09/09/2021 08:21

@sbfptw

In 40 years time if you and yours are requiring care, will you reflect on this post. Does everyone think that money for such services magically appears. Perhaps we shouldn't be 'stretching it' when we take out a mortgage, or have contingency plans if we extend the mortgage for an extra lavatory...
The majority of those on this thread seem to think that someone else, ie. not them, should pay more. That is the problem in the UK, no one thinks they need to pay themselves despite benefitting from the tax paid by others, they are too selfish.
portico · 09/09/2021 08:24

@ChrisS36 - What a stupid suggestion to proffer!

Theluggage15 · 09/09/2021 08:24

It’s not a few new managers! It’s 42 of them on salaries of up to £270,000. Nice work if you can get it.

BeenAsFarAsMercyAndGrand · 09/09/2021 08:25

I'm happy to pay more. I'm fortunate that we are able to afford it.

What I am unhappy about is the unfairness of the way the funds are being raised. If the new HSC Levy were payable on all income, not just worker's earnings, it would be fairer. It surely can't be beyond the wit of the government to design a levy that is more widely applicable. From 2023 it will be a legally separate tax to NI, so they have a blank sheet to work with.

PopcornMuncher · 09/09/2021 08:25

I can't believe the conservatives have done this to be honest

I fully expected shit like this..which is why I didn't vote blue in 2019.

If someone leaves theiir partner to shag someone else while the partner has cancer or arranges to have.someone beaten up, what did those who voted tory expect? That he would treat honest hard working people well? Hmm

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 09/09/2021 08:26

I do think this has hit the wrong people in general, although you don’t sound particularly poor OP!

Problem with taxing the rich I guess is that they always seem to evade it. Perhaps stopping that is a first point of call!

BlueFairiesinthesky · 09/09/2021 08:26

@portico and @the80sweregreat I disagree. There have been some really great changes introduced by these “pen pushers”. I don’t work in the NHS but in come into contact through my job and there is some great work going on. Which would not be delivered if it weren’t for these vital roles.

Eg.... look at the savings....

Healthier You diabetes programme- evaluations have shown great gains in taking people from prediabetic to normal status. Given the NHS spend 10% of their budget on treating diabetes and it’s complications (and growing) employing a team of say 20 programme managers centrally (I don’t actually know how big the team is) is fantastic value for money. This programme is available to every eligible patient in England and will make huge future savings.

There are LOADS of fantastic programmes like this going on. I agree test and trace contracts are shocking, but everything else I’ve seen is well managed and making an impact. Also because all these are public funded they are evaluated and have to have an impact to continue to be funded.

Without these “pen pushers” the NHS would be in a far worse state.

That’s just a flavour of the very important work these “pen pushers” do. They deserve every penny they earn in my opinion. They will save the NHS by increasing efficiency and decreasing spend.

zenthoughtsonlythanks · 09/09/2021 08:26

It’s 42 of them on salaries of up to £270,000

That was a headline PR disaster and I am hoping it is not true! What a bloody disgrace of it turns out to be correct. The NHS is already very bloated with useless bureaucrats.

LakieLady · 09/09/2021 08:28

@Pixxie7

What I don’t understand is that the government pays NI for the unemployed so surely this is going to significantly increase the welfare bill.
I don't think they actually pay the money, they just treat them as though they were paying NI. Like putting a tick in the NI box for that period.

And it's only while they're on contribution based benefits, so just 6 months for JSA.

zenthoughtsonlythanks · 09/09/2021 08:28

I fully expected shit like this..which is why I didn't vote blue in 2019

Well the alternative was Jeremy Corbyn, so more policies just like this one in fact! It seems we now have two labour parties to choose from...

OnlyTheLangOfTheTitberg · 09/09/2021 08:29

I really hate this race to the bottom, punching down mentality. We need to be focussing our ire on those at the top creaming off excessive profits from the outputs of our labours by keeping wages low and stagnant, or sitting back with their offshore accounts bulging on the fruits of fat deals brokered with their chums in power.

I earn the low end of the national average salary and am on a pay freeze, DH is disabled so can no longer work. I’m careful with money so while we will feel this rise in conjunction with all the others going on - energy, food, fuel, council tax next year no doubt - we will be able to afford it without it crippling us, barring major catastrophes. I just wish I could have any confidence at all that increased payments would see any kind of improvement in service, anywhere; social care, the NHS, local council, energy provider…anything. But it never seems to. We pay more and get less.

StrangeToSee · 09/09/2021 08:29

To be paying at that level, you have a household income around 70k. I'm more concerned by the people at the other end of the earning spectrum, sorry

Isn’t it calculated on individual income not household income?

What do you mean by the other end of the spectrum? The less people earn the less they pay. And if they do pay extra tax/NI won’t their UC increase? The people I’m worried about are those in danger of losing their homes. Especially if they can’t re-mortgage (lots of people bought and mortgaged themselves to the hilt in the tax duty break).

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