If the UK is shifting towards a service based economy then a 0.5% increase in (NIC) has a significant impact on business.  For most service based companies the biggest cost is the employee cost.

Our UK companies in the 21st century are competing not just on price and market share, but on cost of sales.  If the competition can provide the same service with a lower employee cost then they can undercut your price and/or be more profitable.  In the past businesses could be comforted in the fact that at least there wasn't a big regional differential in their employee cost.  The internet changed this dynamic and made location no longer a barrier to much service based work. For companies that have part of the employee costs outside the UK in lower cost environments then their competitive advantage will get bigger.

The self employed micro business is also hit by the changes. For these typically serviced based businesses it is also yet another reason to stay a one person company without the bureaucracy and additional NIC cost taking on an employee will hold.

No surprise then that this was one pre-budget report item that didn't appear to be leaked.