Recent graduates could be worse off, experts predict, despite national insurance cuts unveiled by Jeremy Hunt in last week’s Budget However, the Government has kept the threshold at which people start paying tax frozen since 2021 and the point at which they start having to make student loan repayments frozen since 2022.
So while a graduate on £35,000 per year will be £889 a year better off in April as a result of both NI cuts, they will be £546 worse off due to tax threshold freezes and £375 worse off to the student loan threshold freezes, according to calculations by the IFS. Kate Ogden, research economist at the IFS, said: “Despite the recent NI cuts, many will still be worse off from April as a result of other changes to tax since 2021, including multi-year freezes to tax thresholds. The earnings threshold above which graduates make student loan repayments has also been frozen since 2021.