Thousands of families dependent on a single self-employed wage could lose up to a sixth of their income due to a combination of national insurance changes in the budget and earlier cuts to universal credit. Analysis by the House of Commons library, commissioned by the Labour MP Owen Smith, found self-employed single parents with two children who earned £10,000 a year would lose 16% of their income in total once all the changes came into effect. A similar self-employed parent with a starting income of £20,000 would see a cut of just over 12% after the introduction of the controversial changes to national insurance contributions (NICs) in the spring budget, the figures showed. In contrast, by 2019-20, when the NICs changes are complete, this would be £13,851, albeit with the vast majority of the reduction coming via universal credit. For the £20,000 household, the combined reduction in total income is from £22,169 to £19,414, with about £220 of this coming from the NICs increase.

Source: The Guardian March 12, 2017 19:16 UTC