GPs, care homes and hospices voice concern over Budget tax rises

On Thursday Health Secretary Wes Streeting acknowledged there were a number of healthcare providers that will be affected by the NI rise for employers.

Asked whether social care providers would be protected, he told the BBC’s World at One programme: “I’m working through that now and I’ll have more to say on that in the coming weeks in terms of what we can do more quickly to deliver the shift I’ve wanted to see for some time, in the focus of NHS investment spending out of hospitals into primary community.”

He pointed to the extra £600m allocated to social care in the Budget.

Care groups have said this would not be enough and would be “wiped off instantly” by increased staffing costs.

For GPs, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones told Question Time on Thursday that GPs will have to pay employer NI contributions.

“GP surgeries are privately-owned partnerships, they’re not part of the public sector,” he said. “They will therefore have to pay them.”

But he said “how much they pay will depend on the size”, because the government had designed the new system “so that it protects the smallest businesses”.

“The OBR’s confirmed that over 50% of businesses will either not pay any more than they’re already paying or they’ll pay less or nothing at all because we’ve increased the threshold, the allowance, from £5,000 to £10,500 a year,” he said.

He added: “For the broader public sector… we’re going to be working that through the system understanding the implications for different public services.”