Academy trusts: Don’t forget to claim Employment Allowance

Don’t forget to claim Employment Allowance from 6^th April 2025

Employment Allowance allows eligible employers to reduce their annual National Insurance liability by up to £10,500 from 6^th April 2025 (25/26 tax year). You can only claim against your employers’ Class 1 National Insurance liability. Academy trusts are eligible for Employment Allowance.  

Previously employers could only claim if their Class 1 National Insurance liabilities were less than £100,000 in the previous tax year, but from the 6^th April 2025 this criteria will be completely removed, opening up the Allowance to more academy trusts. This is a useful relief that can help reduce the financial burden of National Insurance contributions.

The allowance will be deducted against the employer NICs bill for each month until the limit has been reached. For a lot of academy trusts this will be used up in the first payroll of April 2025.

Multi Academy Trusts (MATs): if you’re part of a MAT, you will only be entitled to just one allowance and it will be up to MATs to decide which academy makes the claim.

We recommend speaking to your payroll providers to ensure this is in place to claim and the appropriate payment summary is reported to HMRC.