Should National Insurance be increased?

THE campaign to stop the hike in National Insurance (NI) deserves to be praised. Well done to the Daily Mail in helping to protect the vulnerable, low-income families and businesses. Hopefully, the Government will listen. Cllr KEVIN ETHERIDGE,

Blackwood, Caerphilly. THE Government should continue with the NI hike to support care services, but increase the basic-rate tax allowance to help with rises in the cost of living. CHRIS STANSFIELD, Mansfield, Notts. THE suggested way to increase funding of social care and the NHS has been badly thought out. If NI is preferred to income tax, it needs to be widened to all adults, including pensioners, but starting at a higher threshold. And it needs to be applied equally, unlike the current system where higher earners pay very little additional NI above a certain income level.

D. SMITH, Sheffield. LORD Frost is complaining about the unfair, but mainly untimely, increase in NI contributions. It’s untimely because of the increase in energy bills and the cost of living. Does he think NI could be increased when prices come down? Dream on: when has anything ever come down enough to make a difference? LAWRENCE WHITELEY,

Thirsk, N. Yorks. THE increase in NI due in April is not a tax grab. It is to fund improved social and health care. If you want something, you have to pay for it. What value is a few pounds in your pocket while many are suffering because of a lack of carers and hospitals are struggling with staff shortages and far fewer beds per head of population than other civilised countries?