Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service will be hit by Labour’s national insurance rise, a councillor has warned.
The new government included the hike of national insurance contributions (NICs), in its Autumn Budget in 2024.
The increase means employer NICs rise from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent in April, with the payment threshold lowered from £9,100 to £5,000 per annum.
However, Conservatuive Councillor Matthew Walsh warned the fire service would feel the hike as he spoke during a meeting of the Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire Authority Executive Committee.
The councillor explained the authority’s national insurance grant was approved as £250,000, rather than the £150,000 which had been forecast.
However, he added: “The total cost of national insurance by the new government to this authority is in excess of half a million pounds a year.”
Cllr Walsh said there was a public perception that the public sector was being fully reimbursed for the increase in employers’ NI contributions.
He said: “We are not. We are losing a quarter of a million pounds next year because of something that we were promised would be fully reimbursed but is not going to be reimbursed.
“A quarter of a million pounds is real money and I just think it is very important that everybody is aware, just because the government said this was going to be fully funded, it has not been fully funded.”
The councillor said the authority should take the issue of ‘additional costs’ up with Buckinghamshire’s MPs.
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