C-Change Scotland Response To Recent Budget Announcement

The recent budget raises significant concerns for the viability of civil society organisations and the not-for-profit social care sector upon which our healthy, safe and productive communities rely. 

C-Change Scotland employs around 235 people, with a projected turnover of approximately £8m. 

The increase in employers NI will mean £183k additional costs (detail at the end). 

Unless a decision is made to mitigate the impact of the budget on the not-for-profit sector, the organisation will need to find that money from somewhere and we need to consider where. C-Change is a registered Living Wage employer committed to fair work practices. The challenges arising from budget decisions require us to consider whether a cost of living salary increase for staff in April 2025 is affordable; the increase to the Living Wage is 5%. 

We are a charity, but we deliver public services on behalf of local authorities. We don’t make a profit. Surplus, when there is any, goes back into the charity. 

Details: 

1. Currently we pay on average £45k per month on employers NI @ 13.8% so increase this to 15% – that’s an additional £4k per month or £48k pa. 

2. The other change is the threshold for when employers NI kicks in – this is reducing from £9,100 to £5,000 so for every employee who earns over £5K the threshold increase adds an additional £615 pa (9100-5000 x 15%) per person. Currently we employ 235 staff likely to be affected by this change – an additional £145k pa. 

3. TOTAL increase in NI bill £193k less the employer allowance of £10,500 = £183k.  

4. The impact on those earning at our lowest salary rate of £23,464 is significant: employer NI is currently £1,982 or 8.14% of gross pay. The change will increase the employer NI to £2,770 or 11.8% of gross pay – an increase of nearly 45%. 

These increases in costs are simply unaffordable: hard pressed organisations like C-Change Scotland will simply not remain viable. We ask you to consider the impact on your constituents of these budget decisions, the detrimental effect on those in receipt of social care support and their families and, also, those who work to deliver these much needed support services.