Now that April pay slips are appearing, the government’s posturing about cutting taxes and helping “hard-working families” is being shown to be a complete falsehood. My partner is a middle manager in the public sector. She has received a 1.2% pay rise and an increased income tax personal allowance, but these have been more than cancelled out by a whopping increase in national insurance, so she is worse off now than before. National insurance is income tax by another name and is paid disproportionately by those on low and middle incomes. It is surely time to merge the two taxes under a single transparent system, so everyone can know how much they are paying and George Osborne cannot increase taxes while pretending to cut them.
Jill Allbrooke
Bromley, Kent
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