National Insurance Contributions (NI)
No changes to the rates of income based NI contributions on employment were announced in the Budget.
Class 2 NI (paid at a weekly flat rate by the self employed), was due to be abolished from 6 April 2019, but will now not be abolished in this parliament. It will be £3.00 per week for 2019-20
The primary and secondary thresholds (at which employees and employers, respectively, start to pay NI) will increase to £166 per week. This means that company directors paying themselves the national insurance threshold can have an increase in pay from April 2018 to £719.33 per month (from £702).
The upper earnings (or profits for the self employed) limit is £50,000 (£962 per week), aligned with the point at which 40% tax becomes payable.
Details of the rates of NI can be found here.
Employer’s Employment Allowance
The employment allowance will remain at £3,000 per annum for 2019-20.
From 2020-21, the allowance will be restricted to companies with employer national insurance bills of less than £100,000.
Minimum wage
The Minimum Wage rates from 1 April 2019 will be:
- 25+ (National Living Wage) – increases from £7.83 to £8.21 per hour
- 21 to 24 year olds increases from £7.38 to £7.70 per hour
- 18 to 20 year olds increases from £5.90 to £6.15 per hour
- 16 to 17 year olds increases from £4.20 to £4.35 per hour
- apprentices increases from £3.70 to £3.90 per hour
