Lord Blunkett. Credit: Parliament.uk (CC BY 3.0)
Budget plans to add national insurance to employer pension contributions are ‘worrying’ and risk damaging people’s standard of living in their retirement, Lord Blunkett says.
In a letter to The Times today (25 October), the former Labour cabinet minister – whose senior ministerial roles included secretary of state for work and pensions – said the widespread reporting of a possible extension of employers' national insurance in next week's budget is "very worrying".
He noted: "It is one thing to increase the rate of national insurance, and quite another to levy this on employer pension contributions."
Blunkett added: "As the former work and pensions secretary who signed off, with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, pensions auto-enrolment — which recognised the genuine crisis, for generations to come, in maintaining living standards in retirement — I would advise strongly against this.
"We need more employers contributing more than the basic 3% and, with it, the corollary of savings and investment, not less. I sincerely hope the rumours are well wide of the mark."
