Update: - The tax break will no longer go ahead. read more here.
A host of changes related to National Insurance Contributions due to come into force from April 2018 have been pushed back one year.
The Government has asked for an extra year in order to consult further on the effects of the proposals on lower income earners.
First announced in the 2015 UK Budget, the full proposals outlined the removal of the current £2.85 per week charge on incomes over £6,025 per annum. People with below those level of earnings can voluntarily pay the charge to retain rights to state pension and similar state benefits - currently numbering just under one million people.
The removal would prompt these people to pay Class 3 National Insurance Contributions instead in order to retain state benefit rights - but these would cost an extra £565 per year.
It was expected that the removal of Class 2 NIC's would be fully announced in this month's Autumn Budget 2017 - with a countered rise in Class 4 NIC's, but this would now appear stalled. In addition, reforms to redundancy payment national insurance liability and sporting testimonial treatment have also been shelved for a year.