Scottish services would be “short-changed” by £400 million if reports around compensation for the national insurance contributions (NIC) rise are correct, First Minister John Swinney has claimed.
Recent reports have suggested the Scottish Government could be given around £300 million to compensate for the impact of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ NIC rise.
The UK Government says the Scottish Government will receive an extra £3.4 billion next year as a result of the Chancellor’s decisions as well as £1.5 billion in the current financial year.
Mr Swinney’s administration is due to publish its own Budget on December 4 but ministers in Edinburgh do not expect to have clarity on the NIC compensation issue by this time.
When the issue was raised at First Minister’s Questions on Thursday, Mr Swinney said: “If the figures that were reported this week are all that is provided, that will mean that the Chancellor of the Exchequer will be short-changing services the public depend upon by over £400 million.”
READ MORE:
SNP told early prisoner release poses public safety threat
Swinney warns of ‘a lot of disruption’ if MSPs don't back SNP budget
Michael Shanks to oppose assisted dying bill over safety concern
Mr Swinney said GPs and colleges would be caught up in the tax rise and that due to the UK’s public finances “independence can’t come soon enough”.
The Conservatives’ Craig Hoy said Mr Swinney had not “changed the record” on independence.
He said both governments are to blame for the impact of the NIC rise, saying the SNP has allowed the “public sector to become too big”.
The First Minister hit back by referring to the “economic incompetence” of the Conservatives and Liz Truss’s administration.
Labour’s Michael Marra said the Chancellor’s Budget had led to an “unprecedented” £5 billion uplift for the Scottish Government.
He said the Office for Budget Responsibility had pointed out that debts “rise and rise forever” if more money is not raised.
Mr Swinney called on Labour to engage with his government in the negotiations on the Scottish Budget.
Earlier, SNP Finance Secretary Shona Robison said the UK Budget would lead to taxes being around £2 billion higher, with £750 million of this falling on the public sector and other sectors providing services.
The Scottish Government had earlier said that the NIC cost to the public sector would be around £500 million.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel