Reeves hit by backlash from health and care sectors over national insurance increase

Rachel Reeves is facing a growing backlash over her national insurance hike as GPs, care homes, dentists and hospices have called for an exemption from the charge.

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

The chancellor is piling pressure on GPs and the care sector with her increase in the employer rate of national insurance – at a time when the services are already under severe strain. But while the NHS and the rest of the public sector have been shielded from Ms Reeves’s national insurance hike, GPs, hospices and care homes have been left to bear the brunt.

The rise in national insurance contributions came alongside a reduction in the threshold at which employers pay the charge and a 6.7 per cent increase in the minimum wage, exacerbating the headache for those affected.

Health secretary Wes Streeting has said that the UK’s palliative care provision is in such a dire state that he would not vote to support an assisted dying law, while the Commons public accounts committee has said the social care sector is “on its knees”. Meanwhile, GPs are struggling with a recruitment crisis, with staff shortages growing at a time of rising demand.

Treasury chief secretary Darren Jones cleared up the initial confusion when he confirmed yesterday that GP practices will have to pay the increased employer national insurance rate. “GP practices are privately owned partnerships. They’re not part of the public sector National Health Service system. And so, yes, they will have to pay national insurance contributions as employers,” he told Times Radio.