Labour is wrong to claim that a cut in National Insurance contributions is unfunded, Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride has said.
He told GB News: “Well, this huge National Insurance cut being unfunded is a complete myth. We have fully funded the one third reduction that is cutting working age people's taxes on average by £900.
“There is the aspiration that we now have to go still further, because we're a party that believes in lower taxes, to ultimately abolish National Insurance altogether.”
Stride also the Conservatives would also introduce new measures which amount to tax cuts for pensioners.
He said: “We believe that pensioners who’ve work hard for all their lives, they should be allowed to retire with dignity and security.
“That's why we brought in the triple lock, and that’s seen huge increases in pensions since 2010, a £3,700 increase, but we want to go still further, and that's where the triple lock plus comes in.
“What that means is that we will be upgrading not just the pensions by the triple lock, but also what's called the personal allowance, that's the amount that you can earn without paying any Income Tax.
“Also, by that same upgrading, by the trouble lock uprating, what that will mean is tax cuts now for pensioners throughout the next Parliament.
“Labour have completely dismissed this which basically means that during the next parliament under Labour, what you're going to be seeing is millions of pensioners being dragged into paying income tax, having to fill all those forms, in all that paperwork and red tape and extra costs.
He added: “We've also, particularly for young people, increased the national living wage now by close to 10% as of this April.
“So we are doing things for those that are hard-working and in work, but we do think that pensioners matter.
“Under Labour, dismissing what we're doing today is simply going to mean that millions of pensioners are going to start paying income tax for the first time, which we don't think is right.”
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