In today's Sunday Times suggestions that the budget will announce a longish term plan to merge national insurance and tax which is good thing as having a separate national insurance fund suggestion is a fiction and the tax system is too complicated.
The Guardian says "Osborne will also promise a more detailed investigation into proposals to merge tax and national insurance. The idea was recommended in an Office for Tax Simplification report, commissioned by Osborne to come up with proposals to help small businesses. Breaking down the tax barriers and shattering the "contributory principle", under which people qualify for certain benefits only when they have paid into the public coffers ? could represent the most radical shakeup of the system since the foundation of the welfare state."
Plus £8000 a year 2012 single person allowance up from sbout £7400 for this year, perhaps... all of course speculation at this point.