Reminder: check if you are eligible for the Employment Allowance

Newsletter issue – July 2026

The Employment Allowance allows companies and charities to reduce their annual National Insurance (NI) liability. For the second tax year running, the maximum you can claim is £10,500 (the maximum prior to April 2025 is £5,000).

To be eligible, you must be a business or public body and do less than half your work in the public sector. You can also be a charity or employ a care/support worker. Since April 2025, if your company pays more than £100,000 in Class 1 NI, you can claim. However, you cannot claim if your company only has one director, and they are the only employee liable for secondary Class 1 NI.

You make the claim through your payroll software by stating "yes" in the Employment Allowance indicator field on your Employment Payment Summary (EPS) submission. If successful, HMRC will reduce your Class 1 NI liability once you've run your payroll each month, until the £10,500 (or the amount you were eligible for) is used up or the tax year ends (whichever comes sooner).

Click here to see how easy it is to switch to Cowley Holmes