The £10,500 Employment Allowance Most Pubs Still Aren't Claiming
In April 2025 employer National Insurance jumped to 15% and the threshold dropped to £5,000. Buried in the same package: the Employment Allowance doubled to £10,500. It's the one change that works in your favour - and plenty of businesses still aren't claiming it.
What it is
A straight discount off your employer NI bill - up to £10,500 a year. No forms, no waiting, just a tick box in your payroll software. At 15%, that covers the NI on your first £70,000 of wages above the threshold. For a lot of small businesses, that's most of the bill - sometimes all of it.
Two things changed in April 2025 and both still apply for 2026/27: the allowance doubled from £5,000, and the old £100,000 cap was scrapped, so larger and multi-company groups can claim now too.
What it's worth
A business with eight on the payroll - a manager on £32k, a senior team member on £29k, two full-timers on £26k, four part-timers on £9k - runs up around £16,350 in employer NI a year. The allowance wipes out nearly two-thirds of it. A smaller team often sees it clear the bill entirely.
One bonus: employer NI is zero on most under-21s and apprentices under 25, so their wages don't eat into your allowance - it stretches further across your senior staff.
The three catches
First, sole-director companies can't claim. You need at least one other employee paid above £5,000.
Second, connected companies share one allowance. Three companies under common control get one £10,500, not three. Claim it through the one with the biggest NI bill.
Third, it doesn't roll over. If your bill is £7,000, you get £7,000 - the unused £3,500 is gone.
A ten-minute eligibility check can uncover thousands in missed NI relief.
Missed years? Claim back four
If you were eligible but never claimed, you can go back four tax years. With the allowance at £5,000 for 2022/23–2024/25 and £10,500 for 2025/26, that's up to £25,500 - on top of this year's claim. If your PAYE is up to date, HMRC offsets it against what you owe, or refunds the rest.
It's one of the first things we check when a business moves to us, and it's surprising how often the box was simply never ticked.
Where it goes wrong
The claim doesn't renew itself. It has to be made every tax year, and not all payroll software carries the flag forward. Businesses claim in year one, forget in year two, and quietly overpay every month after. Changed software or accountants since April? Check the flag is still set. Two minutes now, £10,500 at stake.
What we do
We work on the assumption HMRC won't chase you to take money you're owed. So an Employment Allowance check is part of how we take on every new client - this year's claim, plus any of the four years behind it. Payroll is part of Delve's fixed monthly fee - no extra charge for finding money that was already yours.
