Originally Posted by
BAengineer
I thought the reason it had not been amalgamated into Income Tax is that we still have a basic welfare system that is based on contributions, so to do away with NI you would have to totally revamp the entire welfare system of the UK.
There's a fair amount to sort out, yes. There has been some progress - the alignment of some thresholds so that income tax and NI bands now start at the same place is a deliberate part of the process - but at the current rate it's going to take several more decades.