SCOTTISH healthcare staff will be robbed of hundreds of pounds from their 4% pay rises as a result of Boris Johnson’s National Insurance hike, it has been revealed.
Nicola Sturgeon announced earlier this year that nurses, paramedics and allied health professionals, as well as domestic staff, porters, healthcare support staff and other frontline health workers would receive a boost to their pay packet.
But the UK Government’s decision to increase National Insurance by 1.25% – to fund social care reforms in England – will see the wage increase slashed by at least a fifth.
It means an NHS worker who’s paid £26,104 a year will see their pay increase cut by 20.6% – ie they will lose £206.70 of their £1004 salary boost.
Someone who takes home £32,915 will be hit by a 23% cut – a £291.84 decrease on their £1266 pay rise.
SNP MSP Emma Harper (below), herself a registered nurse, said: “Scotland’s NHS and social care staff have done a monumental job throughout the pandemic and have been nothing short of heroic, putting their lives at risk to care for others.
“That is why the SNP Scottish Government recognised their efforts with the biggest pay rise in Scotland in the history of devolution.
“Now the Tory plans to hike National Insurance will take a significant chunk of that money out of the pockets of hard-working nurses and use it to pay for England’s social care problem – demonstrating how regressive their National Insurance increase is for those on lower incomes."
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She added: “With the hike in National Insurance and the plans to cut Universal Credit, the Tories have clearly demonstrated they will build the recovery on the backs of those who can least afford it.
“Scotland cannot afford another decade of Tory austerity, that is why the people of Scotland will have a choice over their future in a referendum for recovery.”
NHS staff in bands 1 to 4 were handed a blanket pay increase rise of £1009, while those from bands 5 to 7 were given a 4% pay increase. Those in bands 8 and 9 were awarded smaller rises.
Boris Johnson brushed off concerns about Scottish NHS staff being ripped off by the National Insurance hike.
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford pressed the Tory leader for answers at PMQs. He replied: "Actually what's happening is that we're funding the NHS across the whole of the UK, including in Scotland, I'm proud to say with record sums.
"We've ensured that nurses have had access to a training bursary worth £5000, a further bursary £3000 for childcare costs.
"That is before we put up pay by 3% [in England]. That is only possible because of the investment that we're making, the measures that I outlined last week, the package that we're putting forward for health and social care."
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