National Insurance Contributions Bill — New Clause 4 — Employment Allowance for National Insurance Contributions — 6 Sep 2021 at 19:30

The majority of MPs voted to reduce employer's National Insurance bills by up to £24,000 over two years for employers liable to pay less than £100,000 in national insurance in the previous tax year.

MPs were considering the National Insurance Contributions Bill [1]^[2][3]

The proposed new clause rejected in this vote was titled: Employment allowance for national insurance contributions and stated:

• (1) In section 1(2)(a)(1) of the National Insurance Contributions Act 2014 (employment allowance for national insurance contributions), for “£4,000” substitute “£16,000”.
• (2) The provisions of subsection (1) will remain in force until 30 September 2023 and will then expire unless continued in force by an order under subsection (3).
• (3) The Chancellor of the Exchequer may by order made by statutory instrument provide that the provisions which are in force will continue in force for a period not exceeding two years from the coming into operation of the order.
• (4) No order will be made under subsection (3) unless a draft of the order has been laid before and approved by a resolution of both Houses of Parliament.
• (5) The Chancellor of the Exchequer must lay before Parliament a review of the effects of the provisions in subsection (1) on employment, the performance of small businesses and GDP growth no later than 30 September 2023.”

The rejected new clause was accompanied by the following explanatory statement from its proposer:

• This new clause would quadruple the employment allowance from £4,000 to £16,000 for two years. At the end of the period, the Chancellor of the Exchequer would be required to assess its effects and would be able to seek parliamentary approval for the policy to continue for up to a further two years.

The Employment Allowance^[4] is a reduction in employers’ Class 1 National Insurance provided to employers whose Class 1 National Insurance liabilities were less than £100,000 in the previous tax year.

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• [1] Parliament's webpage on the National Insurance Contributions Bill, Parliament.uk
• [2] National Insurance Contributions Bill, as introduced, 7 September 2021, Parliament.uk
• [3] Explanatory notes to the National Insurance Contributions Bill, as introduced, 7 September 2021, Parliament.uk
• [4] Government webpages on Employment Allowance, Gov.uk

Debate in Parliament |