National Insurance Contributions Bill
10:45 am
Jane Kennedy: If I could just add to that, Mr. Marris, if you look at the impact assessment, which is available to Committee members, four options were considered when we were considering what to do to respond to the circumstances as we believed they would develop. One of those options was to do nothing; one was to do the change effective from April 2009, but two other effective dates were considered as well. On balance, we believed that it was better to go for the earliest possible effective date on which we could change it. Bear in mind that we are all the time seeking to simplify the tax and benefit system in the UK, and that was also an important consideration.