00:00 In his spring budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt confirmed a 2p cut to workers' national insurance.
00:08 This indicates the government's eventual ambition to scrap the tax entirely.
00:12 Well, national insurance acts as a form of social security and is defined by the Oxford
00:17 Dictionary as being the system of compulsory payments to provide state assistance to people
00:22 who are unemployed, poorly or retired.
00:25 As a result, it acts as a fundamental basis for the welfare system wherein the amount
00:29 that you pay towards it entirely depends on your employment status and how much you earn.
00:35 If national insurance were to be scrapped altogether, it's highly likely that income
00:39 tax would increase.
00:41 Any rise in income tax would then affect pensioners who do not currently pay national insurance.
00:46 Jeremy Hunt has since told Sky News that the government has done a "enormous amount"
00:51 for pensioners and that growing the economy would ultimately help to increase the state
00:56 pension.
00:56 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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