WORKERS will pay more tax from today as the National Insurance hike officially kicks in.
The 1.25 percentage point rise will mean someone earning £20,000 will pay £130 extra each year, while someone on £60,000 will pay £630 more.
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Boris Johnson marched ahead with the unpopular tax whack despite anger from Tory MPs furious he was breaking an election pledge not to raise NICs.
Hard-pressed Brits have also urged him to think again as they battle a cost of living onslaught.
But the PM insists he needs to raise billions to clear the NHS backlog and help ease crippling social care costs for the elderly.
From July NICs thresholds will be raised from £9,880 to £12,570 to cushion the tax blow by allowing people – especially lower earners – to keep more of their cash.
It means in the long term anyone earning less than £36,000 will pay less tax in the long term, while higher earners will cough up more.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid claimed this morning that the top 15 per cent of earners will foot 50 per cent of the costs.
He vowed that in as little as six months patients would see a visible improvement in the quality of NHS care.
Next year the NICs increase will appear on tax returns as a standalone Health and Social Care Levy.
Mr Johnson said: “We know this won’t be a quick fix, and we know that we can’t fix waiting lists without fixing social care.
“Our reforms will end the cruel lottery of spiralling and unpredictable care costs once and for all and bring the NHS and social care closer together.
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“The Levy is the necessary, fair and responsible next step, providing our health and care system with the long term funding it needs as we recover from the pandemic.”
Rishi Sunak added: “This Government will not shy away from the difficult decisions we need to take to fix our social care system and slash NHS waiting times.”
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