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Highlights
- Lord Frost called on PM Boris Johnson to scrap the £12 billion national insurance tax hike amid the worsening cost of living crisis.
- The government has planned a 1.25 percentage point national insurance tax hike in April.
Lord Frost, the former Brexit chief, called on PM Boris Johnson to scrap the £12 billion national insurance tax hike. Lord Frost stated the proposed April hike should be called off as the UK’s cost-of-living crisis is expected to worsen.
British households are already being burdened by inflationary pressures (as December 2021 inflation was at 5.4 per cent, the highest in 30 years) and soaring energy prices (especially amidst an expected hike in energy price cap and following concerns over Russia-Ukraine tensions)
The government plans to raise the national insurance tax by 1.25 percentage points in April. The Brexit chief became the latest minister to urge the PM to scrap the hike. Former minister, David Davis, had also called on the PM to scrap the hike recently and was quoted on a BBC interview that the move would wipe out around 10 per cent of disposable income for ordinary families. Davis had also called on the PM to resign last week.
Amid this development, let us deep-dive, into 2 FTSE listed insurance stocks and explore their investment prospects:
- Just Group PLC (LON:JUST)
Just Group is a UK-based company with a focus on retirement products and services. It is a part of the FTSE 250 index. It released its business update for the year ended on 31 December 2021, today.
Its 2021 retirement income sales rose by 25 per cent to £2,674 million, up from £2,145 million in the year before. Of this, the group’s Defined Benefit De-risking sales were up by 28 per cent to £1.9 billion, compared to £1.5 billion in the previous year.
Image source: Refinitiv
The company’s shares were trading at GBX 86.55, up by 2.85 per cent on 25 January at 11:36 AM BST. At the same time, the FTSE 250 index was at 21,751.84, up by 1.40 per cent.
The company has a market cap of £873.89 million and a one-year return of 9.90 per cent, as of date.
- Prudential PLC (LON: PRU)
Prudential is a UK-based financial services firm involved in insurance and related products and services. It has a presence in various countries.
Retirement services provider Jackson Financial recently completed its demerger from the company. It is now trading as an independent company on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol JXN.
Prudential shareholders at the record date had received 1 JXN class A common stock for 40 of their Prudential ordinary stock upon demerger.
Image source: Refinitiv
The company’s shares were trading at GBX 1,252.50, up by 1.58 per cent on 25 January at 11:20 AM BST. The FTSE 100 index, which it is a part of, was at 7,357.71, up by 0.83 per cent.
The company has a market cap of £33,863.26 million as of date.
