TAX HIKE HAMMERS LONDON HARDEST

STAFF IN CAPITAL TWICE AS LIKELY TO BE WORSE OFF AFTER TODAY’S RISE IN NATIONAL INSURANCE | Half of London workers lose out in Rishi’s latest ‘levelling down’ tax raid

- Jonathan Prynn and Rachael Burford

LONDON workers are twice as likely to be made worse off by the shake up of national insurance than those in the rest of the country, analysis by the Evening Standard shows today.

The first stage of the NI reforms kicks in today when the rate for employees goes up by 1.25 percentage points to pay for improvements to the NHS and social care.

Boris Johnson announced the increase last September, but in the March spring statement Chancellor Rishi Sunak cushioned the impact for the lower paid by raising the threshold by £3,000 to £12,570 from 6 July.

The two changes combined mean that employees earning up to a tipping point of around £34,000 will be better off in the 2022-23 financial year — but those paid more than £34,000 will lose out.

The median salary of London workers last year was £34,439, according to latest ONS data, meaning that half of them earn more than that and will be hit by a net cut in their pay in the latest “levelling down” tax raid on the capital.