Thanks again to WeThink (formerly Omnisis), we have some new polling on the Autumn Statement.
We first asked people about the direct impact of the 2% employee national insurance tax cut in the Autumn Statement (we limited the question to employees, as the self-employment NIC position is slightly different):
The tax cut is actually worth £450 each year to the average full-time employee; so many people are under-estimating it. Possibly this reflects people not realising how the 2% cut applies (understandable, given it isn’t just a simple 2% of income). Possibly it just reflects a general level of cynicism in politics.
We then asked about the perception of the overall change in tax position over the last 18 months:
The percentage believing they’re paying more tax is surprising low. The national insurance cut is much smaller than the approximately £50bn raised from “fiscal drag” – holding tax thresholds steady in nominal terms as inflation erodes their real value.
As Paul Johnson has said:
It’s interesting that fiscal drag is not “cutting through” as an issue, given that it is both a real effect, and the subject of frequent press commentary.
The full polling data is here. Thanks once more to WeThink for their generosity in running these polling questions completely pro bono.
Photo by Elliott Stallion on Unsplash