Increased National Insurance costs destroying your profits and stunting your growth? It doesn’t have to be that way…
Economic uncertainty and rising employment costs put the brakes on hiring across the UK economy with a record low number of businesses planning to recruit new staff according to several surveys published in the last couple of months.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) have reported only 57% of firms plan to hire staff in the next quarter – down 10% from last Autumn whilst KPMG/Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) found a dearth of job postings for both permanent and temporary roles in July.
Businesses claim that since Rachel in accounts decided it was a good idea for the Government to hit business with a £25bn increase in Employers’ National Insurance contributions (ERNIC) the brakes have been applied to business investment – specifically in terms of people where costs have increased markedly.
With Employer’s National Insurance rising to 15% and the small business NI allowance shrinking from £9,000 to £5,000, the cost of employing staff is increasing sharply. The annual cost of employing someone on a £25,000 annual salary is now over a £1,000/annum more due to the ERNIC increases before even considering wage inflation.
Of course, cutting back headcount and failing to replace roles that become vacant is a major obstacle to driving a business forward, and it is highly likely any short-term “gains” will be at the cost of longer-term growth,
There are however other options.
At ERA Group, both directly and in conjunction with trusted partners, we provide our clients with multiple strategies to at least offset 100% of the increase in ERNIC costs – and in many cases can facilitate client’s saving up to 50% of their total ERNIC liability.
Some of these strategies utilise Employee Benefits and restructuring which has the further benefit of attracting and retaining talent whilst simplifying payroll, HR and compliance processes.
For example, a business with as few as 100 employees and a monthly payroll of £200k can expect to save more than £150k/annum whilst delivering a suite of Employee Benefits to staff.Want to cut costs and fund growth?Email Paul Gravatt (pgravatt@eragroup.com) or speak to your ERA contact to set up a no-obligation meeting.