Rishi facing push in NI as economy
RISHI Sunak is certain to come under more pressure to delay April’s National Insurance rise and provide more cost-of-living support after UK finances hit a record surplus of £2.9billion.
Official data revealed the Chancellor did not borrow money last month as the economy continues to bounce back to life following the worst of the pandemic.
That was the first monthly budget surplus since February 2020, just before Covid-19 forced the UK into lockdown.
The improvement came as tax income rose to £91.6billion, some £8.6billion more than in January last year. Boris Johnson announced in September that NI contributions would go up by 1.25 per cent to pay for the social care system in England in a bid to end the “unpredictable and catastrophic costs” faced by many.
That move is predicted to raise £36billion which – in the early years – will be used mainly to bankroll the backlog in the NHS.
But yesterday’s welcome figures seem set to lead to calls for the planned NI increase to be delayed amid the cost-of-living crisis.
Isabel Stockton, a research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said the data suggest that borrowing remains likely to come in below that forecast in the Budget.
She added: “Some have suggested that lower-thanexpected borrowing figures should lead the Chancellor to provide more support to households, on top of that announced earlier this month, to cope with the fast-increasing cost of living. In truth, the latter has little to do with the former.
“The Chancellor could certainly delay tax rises, uprate benefits with a more up-to-date measure of inflation in April, or implement further one-off support. But tax rises were introduced to tackle long-run challenges, notably in health and social care, which have in no way