This tax break lets over-65s pay less than younger workers. It's time to end it

In the UK, most people pay two forms of income tax on the money they make from work, but we currently allow the over-65s to avoid paying the second.

In the name of fairness, this needs to end.

If you are a basic rate taxpayer, you pay 20 per cent of all your earnings over £12,570 in income tax. But you also pay a second income tax too, called national insurance (NI), on an extra 8 per cent.

Once you hit 66 – the current state pension age – you suddenly stop paying NI, even if you are still working.

It means you can have two people, one aged 30 and one aged 66, for example, both working and earning £50,000. The younger of the two takes home up to £3,293 a month, whereas the older worker takes home £250 per month more, at £3,543.

This creates not only an unfairness, but also feeds int