NIC hammer blow

The publication of the tax figures for April reveals the true extent of the Chancellor’s crippling extra National Insurance burden on business.

Just in the month of May businesses have paid out nearly £2bn in extra employers’ National Insurance.

Employers paid a total of £8.73bn in NICs in May 2024. In May 2025, one month after the 1.2% increase and the reduction in the employment threshold from 6 April, and the figure is up by £1.92bn to £10.66bn. That is a crippling 22% increase.

It is no wonder that the rate of job vacancies is already at its lowest since the credit crunch and employers are already announcing pay freezes and redundancies.

Then of course, there is the inevitable impact on inflation as businesses push up prices to try to cover the massive increase in their costs.