I have just signed this open letter to the Chancellor, and I urge all leaders of charities and voluntary organisations to do the same.
Charities are increasingly struggling to make ends meet. Many have had to reduce services, make job cuts, or even close their doors entirely. At the same time, the expectation from central and local government seems to be that we will continue to take on the heavy burden of providing essential, and often life saving services to vulnerable people, because statutory services are no longer able to do so.
It seems incomprehensible, therefore, that the government, would further increase the financial pressure on charities by failing to include an exemption to the increase in employers NIC, as they have done for public sector organisations.
This short-sighted approach is going to cost even a smaller charity such as Trauma Breakthrough many thousands of pounds per year, and medium to large charities are facing five and six figure increases to their wage bills.
This is something we simply cannot afford. It means that more charities will go under and many more will have to reduce or close services.
The government has proclaimed loudly that it wants to form a new covenant with 'civil society'. These are fine words, but the government needs to understand that unless it makes immediate practical changes to its policies, the voluntary and charity organisations that make up civil society may not be around long enough to participate.
Open letter to the chancellor on the impact of increased employer National Insurance Contributions for charities: sign NCVO and ACEVO’s open letter to the chancellor calling for urgent action on the planned increase to employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) for the voluntary sector.
https://lnkd.in/exqrim58