Off the hook? Lowest-earning self-employed must pay FIVE TIMES as much NI to get a state pension

Last Updated: March 19, 2017By

A tough lesson: part-time tutors are one of the groups likely to be hit by the little-known change [Image: Alamy].

I’m currently in this category.

Remember what I wrote yesterday about being a suicide risk because of being a carer, working in the media, and having particularly stressful life events to go through?

I guess you can add self-employment to that list now. Thanks for nothing, Philip Hammond.

And, by the way, this means his – and Theresa May’s – claim to have stuck to the Tory manifesto pledge not to raise people’s taxes is a lie.

Or do these vile Tories think those of us earning a pittance don’t count as people?

Jane Clark, a self-employed maths tutor who earns around £2,500 a year, faces a 400% increase in her national insurance contributions (NICs) if she wants to retain her right to a state pension.

That equates to an extra £588 a year, which is a good chunk of Clark’s earnings – and she is far from alone. Potentially, several hundred thousand self-employed people who earn below £6,000 a year will be clobbered, unless the government brings in measures between now and April next year to reduce the impact.

Philip Hammond had to ditch his grand plan to increase “class 4” NICs for the self-employed just a week after he announced it in the budget. It’s a spectacular U-turn – but it doesn’t mean the self-employed have got off scot-free.

While the chancellor’s latest announcement means middle and higher-earning self-employed people – those who would have been hit by the increase – are now off the hook for the time being, their less well-off counterparts are not so lucky.

The government is pressing ahead with the previously announced abolition of “class 2” NICs for the self-employed from April 2018. As things stand, this means many of Britain’s lowest-earning self-employed workers will either have to pay an extra £588 a year, or lose their entitlement to a state pension.

Source: New bombshell for self-employed: pay 400% more NICs… or lose state pension | Money | The Guardian

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7 Comments

  1. Justin March 19, 2017 at 1:12 am - Reply

    the other question you also have to ask giving this lot’s track record is could you trust them with a state pension

  2. joanna March 19, 2017 at 2:14 am - Reply

    Companies who force people to become self-employed should be targeted!!!

  3. Zippi March 19, 2017 at 2:57 am - Reply

    Scrapping Class 2? What will we get for our money, then?
    I said that we hadn’t heard the last of this and if we thought that things couldn’t get any worse, have you seen this?
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4322038/Osborne-plan-four-tax-returns-year-delayed.html

  4. Rupert Mitchell (@rupert_rrl) March 19, 2017 at 7:22 am - Reply

    I would not trust this lot with anything approaching decency and the only answer is to make certain that we get rid of them at the very first possible opportunity. If we don’t then a decent a reasonably happy life for the majority of people in this country is finished.

    Their only interest is in keeping their (usually unearned) privileges and that is their main reason for wanting to be in control rather than running the country with decency and respect.

    The problem is that they rely on the apathy of those whom they despise and seek to take advantage and we have to find a way of waking that section of society up to the fact that there is a better way if only they would play their part and vote Labour.

  5. jeffrey davies March 19, 2017 at 8:32 am - Reply

    that brought back a memory when i was self employed i had to stop work for a while for a op well the outcome the jcp paid ten pence for my first born wow

  6. Joan Edington March 19, 2017 at 9:35 am - Reply

    I’m no expert on NI etc but surely I’m not the only one who thought that when they casually said they were abolishing Class 2 NICs, that the low-paid self-employed were getting help. I should have known better, them being Tories. Am I the only one who didn’t remember Hammond mentioning loss of State Pension?

    • Zippi March 19, 2017 at 10:01 pm - Reply

      No, Joan, you’re not.

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