The impact will be felt across all types and sizes of business, with larger employers facing additional costs running into millions of pounds due to the increase of the Class 1 NICs rate from 13.8% to 15%, and the reduction of the secondary earnings threshold from £9,100 to £5,000 a year.

The government said the increases were necessary in order to “help fix the foundations of the public finances and invest in public services”. The changes come into effect on 6 April.

In its latest Printing Outlook, the BPIF also reported that wage pressure had become the most serious concern for respondents.

BPIF chief executive Charles Jarrold told Printweek: “Companies are facing a significant bill that was unexpected, and we saw that come through pretty strongly in our recent quarterly survey.

“It has had a clear and negative impact. For all organisations the NI increase is a significant number, and if you’re employing a lot of people, it’s a massive number.”

Jarrold said the BPIF was urging the government to look at what it can do elsewhere to incentivise and encourage private sector investment.

Reflex Group CEO Ian Kendall said the changes would involve a multimillion pound increase in costs at his company, which employs nearly 1,000 people.

He pointed out that the across-the-board impact for all businesses was significant due to it coming at the exact same time for everyone, unlike the typical ebb and flow of other external challenges.

“The difference in this case is that everyone can pinpoint the exact increase in their costs,” he noted.

“It’s the chilling effect – our suppliers are gloomy, our customers are gloomy, all at once. I think this will be the biggest knock to a lot of businesses than anything like Covid or Brexit or anything else that we’ve experienced.”

In the Printweek poll (below), 52% of respondents said they would put up prices, 21% would make redundancies, 16% would absorb it, and 11% would implement a hiring freeze.

Kendall added: “We employ just under 1,000 people, and at the end of this year that number will not be higher. We will not be employing more people, I can absolutely 100% say that.”

Bell & Bain chairman Stephen Docherty commented: “It’s just problem after problem. Everything’s going up. I’m going to have to think this through, it’s madness.”

Andrew Jones, chairman and group managing director at Stephens & George Print Group, said: “We have calculated, the following morning of the budget, that the increase in NI and minimum wage will cost the company in the region of £250,000, not an insignificant sum.

“The drop in the NI threshold alone, to £5,000, will cost every employer £615 per annum per person employed, and with the minimum wage now £12.21 per hour, an employee only has to work eight hours a week per annum to hit the £5000 threshold, so just about everybody will be caught in the new NI limit, to us that is over £110,000, makes the eyes water, so we have decided that we will have to increase our prices from April.”

He said that during the group's budget modelling for 2025/2026 it decided to put a moratorium on recruiting staff, and the firm currently has just two vacancies within its production unit. 

”We have not put a wage increase in the budget, at the moment, and we are cutting jobs by natural wastage and voluntary redundancies, not the position we want to be in, but as you are aware the print industry is still hyper competitive and we need to cut our costs accordingly, just to stand still. I’m sure these conversations are taking place in boardrooms all over the country.”

A recent CIPD survey of more than 2,000 UK employers also found that 42% planned to raise prices, almost a third (32%) would reduce headcount through redundancies or a recruitment freeze, while 24% were cancelling or scaling back investment plans.

Peter Cheese, chief executive at the HR and people development body, also called for the government to support businesses to help achieve the much-vaunted growth agenda.

“If the government’s plans are to succeed, it’s vital they set out how they will help businesses to support growth and investment. 

“And it’s important this support is felt across the economy. Our data shows it's the everyday economy sectors, such as retail and hospitality, which employ large numbers of people, that will be particularly affected by impending increases to employment costs.”

He called for fast-track consultations with employers on the design of the new Growth and Skills Levy, and on other changes to skills policy “to help organisations upskill their workforces and to tackle technical skills shortages holding back the economy”.

He said support for smaller businesses should also be reviewed and improved.