The planned rise in employer National Insurance contributions “threatens the very sustainability of Northern Ireland’s voluntary sector”, the chief executive of the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action has said.
Celine McStravick said that without immediate government intervention, Northern Ireland’s voluntary sector would see “widespread service reductions, job losses and diminished support for our most vulnerable communities”.
Research carried out by Nicva found that 76 per cent of the Northern Irish voluntary organisations surveyed expected that their budgets would be negatively affected by the employer NI increase announced in the Budget.
It has been estimated that the change, which will see employer NI contributions rise by 1.2 percentage points, will cost the UK voluntary sector £1.4bn per year.
Nicva said some organisations reported that redundancies would be inevitable as a result of the changes, particularly in core administrative roles.
Reductions in services were also expected by many organisations, affecting childcare, disability support, mental health services and community programmes, according to Nicva.
The research found that of the 68 organisations surveyed, 50 per cent anticipate that their budgets would need to increase by between £5,000 and £200,000 to accommodate for the NI changes.
Of those surveyed, 19 anticipate that their charity’s budget would need to increase by between £5,000 to £50,000, while 15 said that they expect their charity’s budget would need to rise by between £51,000 and £200,000 to accommodate the changes. Just one charity said that its budget would need to increase by up to £500,000.
Of those asked, 18 per cent of organisations said the NI hike would have no effect on their charity, but these were all volunteer-led charities or organisations with no employees.
Three organisations said the increases would have a minor effect on their charity’s budget, but Nicva said this was due to a low number of paid staff.
McStravick said: “This NICs increase threatens the very sustainability of Northern Ireland’s voluntary sector at a time when our services are needed most.
“Unlike public sector organisations, we have no protection against these rising costs. Without immediate government intervention, we’ll see widespread service reductions, job losses, and diminished support for our most vulnerable communities.”