Re: Valuable comments
@ markr555
When the Welfare State was set up NI was added to taxation supposedly to cover the costs of this. Likewise road vehicle taxation was introduced, in the form of the Road Fund Licence, to finance road construction and repair (the clue was in the name). The Road Fund, incidentally, was a solution to a problem that had plagued England and presumably many other places sing the middle ages.
The problem with this is the Treasury. It really doesn't like not being in control of all finances. It simply treats these as part of general taxation and doles out as little money as possible to the originally intended recipients. In the case of vehicle taxation it really did have to change the name - people might have started asking awkward questions such a show much money's in the fund and how's it spent.
In each case I think the solution is to tell the Treasury no. DVLA gets to keep the money and spend it on roads. It might make a payment to the NHS to cover the costs of dealing with RTAs but only when the roads are up to an agreed standard does any left-over money go to Treasury; if they're not up to standard then it goes back to the original tax-payers as compensation. A reconstituted DHSS would collect NI directly. NI could be set according to requirements, not according to what proportion of total taxation Treasury wants to shove under that heading.
This would bring transparency to large areas of taxation. NI could be set to meet requirements with a good deal more acceptance than at presence because it would be clear as to what it was being used for. The incompetence of DWP as it currently is would be an issue that affected taxpayers in general rather than just benefits claimants and get a much higher political profile.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
