The IFS throws Philip Hammond a lifeline - will he take it?

As Philip Hammond faces a slew of negative headlines and fields accusations that he is a liar over his decision to backtrack on a 2015 Tory manifesto pledge and raise National Insurance for the self-employed, the Chancellor has been thrown a lifeline by the Institute of Fiscal Studies. At today’s IFS Budget briefing, Paul Johnson offered his verdict on Hammond’s first Budget. While he raised concerns about the government’s sluggish plan to balance the books (warning that it could be delayed past 2025), he welcomed the controversial NIC raise as ‘baby steps in the right direction’:

‘A tax system which charges thousands of pounds more in tax for employees doing the same job as someone else needs reform. It distorts decisions, creates complexity and is unfair. The incentives for companies to claim that people who work for them are self employed rather than employees are huge.’