UKHospitality steps up campaign to protect lower earners

Today (Tuesday, 3 December), MPs in the House of Commons will debate the second reading of National Insurance Contributions (NICs) Bill.

In response, trade body UKHospitality has released a set of tools to help the general public—and MPs—understand the effect that increased NICs will have on lower earners in businesses of all sizes next April.

Tools include a template letter and a data map showing the economic impact of the hospitality sector in each region across Britain. A video highlights the scale of this complex issue and explains in accessible language why lower earners are hit hardest.

A blow for hospitality

Research by UKHospitality has found that increases to employer NICs will hit the hospitality sector hardest, with a steep 10% rise in the cost of employment per person. And while a person earning £150,000 may lose 20% of their pay rise next year due to the change, a person earning £25,000 will lose as much as 45%.

In a letter to the chancellor last month, spearheaded by UKHospitality, sector bosses asked for changes to help mitigate the impact. More than 200 signatories asked for either the creation of a new employer NICs band from £5,000 to £9,100 with a lower rate of 5%, or the implementation of an exemption for lower band taxpayers working fewer than 20 hours per week.

UKHospitality CEO, Kate Nicholls, comments: “At the Budget in October, the Government delivered an increase of £3.4 billion to the sector’s 2025 annual tax bill. This will put businesses under unbearable pressure and will inevitably hit lower earners hardest.

“The more pressure we can put on government to understand the devastating impact of these measures on hospitality, the more chance we have of getting changes. That is why we are releasing this simple explainer video and encouraging all operators to use the tools on our website to write to their MP to spell out the scale of the damage if nothing changes.”

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