Unite the Union, Ireland Region

Unite Regional Secretary Jackie Pollock challenged the Tory government on its decision to raise national insurance contributions by 1.25 percent under cover of funding social care in a Covid crisis.

“The increase of 1.25 percent on national insurance from April 2022 will impact workers across the board – the fact that national insurance contributions are capped means that this is a highly regressive form of taxation. The billionaire class, who have watched the value of their financial assets and shareholdings balloon as a result of huge monetary injections by government and the Bank of England, will not make any contribution at all.

“The Tory government dishonestly presents this move as a necessity given the pressures resulting from the Covid pandemic; the reality is that this is an attempt to make working-class people pay for a long-term crisis in the social care system a crisis caused by the interests of profit-makers trumping the quality of care and support offered to older people.

“The £12 billion that this measure is forecast to raise will be wholly insufficient to meet the costs of providing quality social care to all – meaning more privatisation and more rationing. The government will continue to fail to deliver the care needed by those with a lifetime of contributions behind them. Pensioners will still be expected to pay up to £86,000 towards the provision of their own care. All this, just to ensure that the Tories’ friends in big business and the city financial elite do not have to pay anywhere near their fair share.

“At a time of surging inflation, this tax increase threatens a further sharp reduction in workers’ incomes unless it is reflected in increased pay, alongside wider cost of living adjustments. It is essential that workers are collectively organised in trade unions as the only effective way to secure themselves and their families at this time”, Mr Pollock concluded.