National Insurance rise

Reports on increases to National Insurance state that contributions will increase by 1.25% this month. In fact, the rise is a 1.25 percentage point increase applied to existing National Insurance rates, not a percentage increase on those rates. This might sound pedantic, but it does make quite a big difference to the figures.

For people currently paying National Insurance at a rate of 12%, this will mean they start to pay at 13.25% instead. Most people will therefore see an increase of more than 10% in the amount of National Insurance they pay after the rise.

Alex Orr, Edinburgh.