DWP boss Mel Stride breaks silence over state pension being cut £312

James Rodger

22 May 2024 at 7:40 am·2-min read

Mel Stride has been grilled over fears the state pension could drop £312 if National Insurance is scrapped. The Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) boss Mr Stride has been asked if scrapping National Insurance could result in a drop in the state pension.

Mr Mel Stride told the Work and Pensions Committee "these are hypothetical questions" after being pressed on whether the state pension would be cut by £5 or £6 a week, or £312. Mr Stride told the committee: "The Chancellor and I, and other members of the Government, have an aspiration to abolish National Insurance through a determinate but long period of time.

"Decisions around how money is spent within Government are typically announced in the main at least, at fiscal events in the Spring and the Autumn. As you will know, they are underwritten in a scorecard by the OBR to check that all the numbers add up and are within the fiscal rules.

"That’s the way the system operates." In his Budget and Spring Statement back in March, the chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced a 2p cut in the NICs rate from 6 April, adding that his eventual aim was to scrap it altogether.

But answering questions from MPs on the Treasury committee, he made clear this was a "long-term ambition". He told the cross-party committee: "This is going to be the work of many Parliaments." Speaking earlier during Prime Minister's Questions, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of offering voters an "unfunded £46 billion promise to scrap National Insurance".

"They tried that under the last administration and everybody else is paying the price. All we need now is an especially hardy lettuce," he said. Mr Hunt replied: "I'm just wondering how it is that Labour MPs can square with their conscience voting in favour of a cut in national insurance at the same time as they're trying to scare everyone that it will mean cuts in funding for the NHS."

Mr Hunt said his Budget had spelled out "what our approach to the spending assumption will be in a way that is designed to avoid austerity-style cuts in public services".

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