28 May 2025
Since 2021, employers who choose to hire qualifying veterans have been able to claim National Insurance (NI) relief up to the Veterans Upper Secondary Threshold for the first 12 months of the individual’s civilian career.
Research, undertaken by Ipsos for HMRC, has looked at what decisions employers make when choosing to employ veterans.
The report covers the recruitment practices employed, awareness of the relief, its impact and proportionality. Alternative scenarios were given to participants to establish what different changes to the scheme would do to impact its uptake and usefulness.
The conclusions states:
“This research aimed to assess the extent to which the employer NI relief for veterans encouraged the employment of veterans, and to understand how the savings from the relief were used by employers. While employers appreciated savings gained from the relief, the relief had neither directly influenced their recruitment decisions nor encouraged the employment of veterans for any employers interviewed. Recruitment of veterans by these employers would have taken place in the absence of the relief. This indicates that the relief in its current form had not encouraged the employment of veterans for the employers claiming it.”
Many participants in the study cited that they recruit based on the best candidate for the role with aptitude, suitability and skills being prioritised. Will this spark future changes to the scheme to make it more impactful to the target groups, or cut to improve revenue to the treasury?
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