Written evidence we received from Mencap, a social care provider supporting over 4,000 people with learning difficulties, indicated that the changes to employer NICs coupled with increases in the National Living Wage, could potentially cost it an additional £18 million a year. Mencap stated that if local authorities did not receive support from central 45 Q 47 46 Letter from MHCLG to Committee, 16 April 2025 47 Q 47 48 Q 47 49 Q 47 50 Q 53 16 government, it would be forced to renegotiate and potentially hand back social care contracts, affecting 60% of its services.51 The Homecare Association in its written evidence highlighted the significant impact the NIC rise will have on the homecare sector because of the number of part- time workers. It gave us an example of how changes in the employer NICs threshold could result in the employer’s NI costs, for a carer working 16 hours a week, rising from £61.23 to £777.73. For a carer working a more typical 25 hours a week, it illustrated that the employer’s NI costs could more than double from £802.06 to £1,637.09.52