Falkirk could lose £8 million in national insurance hike, council leader warns

The SNP claims Falkirk Council stands to lose at least £8 million as a result of the UK Government's changes to National Insurance contributions, which they believe are "ill thought out".

It follows the UK Budget on October 30, when the Chancellor of Exchequer raised the rate of the employer national insurance contributions from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent - starting on April 25.

At the same time the threshold at which employers start to pay National Insurance Contribution was lowered from £9100 to £5000. Read more: Falkirk roads need more money to be kept in decent condition The increases will raise over £25 billion and the UK Government has pledged an additional £3.4 billion to Scotland to support the additional costs through the Barnett formula.But the leader of Falkirk Council, Cllr Cecil Meiklejohn says the funding does not take into account the full impact of the rise.She is urging the UK Government to fully reimburse the cost of increasing National Insurance contributions councils now face.Her motion to Falkirk Council urges other local members to call on the UK Chancellor and the Labour UK Government to "fully reimburse over £500 million costs of Employer National Insurance contributions to the public and third sectors in Scotland which will be incurred as a result of their decision to raise these within the UK Autumn Statement".Cllr Meiklejohn said: "The UK Government has pledged to provide additional funding to cover the impact of this on public services."However, there has been no allowance for the fact that Scotland has a larger public sector workforce which is better paid than the rest of the UK, nor the knock on effect to the wider supply of goods and services that could have a significant impact to