Russell HR Consulting managing director Kate Russell would like plans to remove employer NICs for 21-year-olds and younger brought forward to this budget. It is estimated this will save companies £500 million in tax costs.
The Government currently plans to implement these changes in 2015. Deloitte also predicts NIC contributions for young people will be ditched in this budget.
The professional services firm would like chancellor George Osborne to adopt recommendations by the Office of Tax Simplifications (OTS) on emplopyee benefits taxes. In January, the OTS published a report in which they said taxes needed to be made clearer, especially on international travel. It said the rules around this had not kept up with the ways companies are using this in their business models.
Andrew Hunter, co-founder of job search engine Adzuna, wants to see the chancellor address the employment issues in the North. Hunter pointed to the gap in benefits claims between the North and South: "In the thriving South-East, the number of unemployment claimants plummeted 26% in the year to January 2014 to 101,736. Comparatively, the North West, for example, saw 154,586 unemployment claimants in the same month, 34% higher than their southern counterparts."
Hunter said that investment in new technologies such as 3-D printing was crucial to maintain momentum in the promising manufacturing sector in the North. He added that continued support for apprenticeships and training was also needed.