First Employer Obligations For Pensions

Don’t be fooled into thinking Auto enrolment is too far away in the future to worry about yet.

The first thing an employer should do in preparation for the new employer duties is to find out when their staging date is likely to be.  The staging date will be based on the size of your PAYE scheme on 1 April 2012 and if the number of persons in an employer’s PAYE scheme changes between 1 April 2012 and their staging date, the staging date will not be affected, even if the change is significant.

The second stage is Safeguarding Individuals. This is because regardless of the size of your PAYE scheme, the law on the new employer duties and safeguards will commence from July 2012, even if your staging date is months and years away.  The safeguards are intended to protect individuals, meaning there are certain things the employer must not do, both before a person starts working for them and once that person is a member of a pension scheme with that employer.

The safeguards include:

  • Stopping active membership of a qualifying scheme
  • Unfair treatment of workers
  • Inducements
  • Prohibited recruitment conduct
  • For more details go to www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk

Tax Year End Preparations

The end of another tax year is approaching. This is a busy time for payrollers and there are numerous payment and reporting deadlines to be met if penalties are to be avoided. It is vital that employers and their agents understand what needs to be done and when, and that they have all the required information to hand so that the process can be handled smoothly and efficiently. I advise all employers to start their year end preparations early March with the following checklist:

Read more »

Statutory Paternity Pay & Leave For Fathers

Additional statutory paternity pay/leave (ASPP/ASPL) is a new statutory right for fathers of children who were due on or after 3rd April 2011. It gives fathers a right of up to 26 weeks’ extra leave which can be taken once the mother has returned to work. Up to 19 weeks can be paid as long as the leave taken is during the mother’s maternity pay period and she is no longer in receipt of statutory maternity pay, statutory adoption pay or maternity allowance.

ASPP is only payable during the mother’s maternity pay period. That is the 39 consecutive weeks in which SMP would be payable if the mother had not returned early. The earliest the ASPL can start is 20 weeks after the child is born. It cannot start before the mother has returned to work. The ASPL has to be taken in complete continuous weeks and can be for a minimum of 2 weeks and a maximum of 26 weeks. The ASPL can continue until the child’s first birthday, but any leave taken after the mother’s maternity pay period ends will be unpaid.

Read more »

Autumn Statement 2011

Chancellor George Osborne delivered his Autumn Statement to Parliament on Tuesday 29th November. Since the March budget a number of consultation papers and discussion documents have been published by HMRC. Draft legislation relating to many of these areas will be published on 6th December 2011. Here are some of the proposals:

Personal Tax for 2012/13

The personal tax allowance for those aged under 65 will be increased by £630 to £8,105. This is greater than the minimum required and is part of the plan of the coalition government to ultimately raise the allowance to £10,000.

The personal allowance is reduced by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income over £100,000. Next year the allowance ceases at adjusted net income in excess of £116,210.

Read more »

National Minimum Wage: Common Mistakes

The NMW exists to protect low paid workers by providing a ‘wage floor’ that employers cannot legally go below. HMRC enforces the NMW and in 2010/11, HMRC identified almost £4 million in arrears, benefitting around 23,000 workers. HMRC want to help employers comply with NMW requirements. It saves employers the cost and hassle of an enquiry and helps ensure that low paid workers are paid what they are legally owed. Payroll providers, like ourselves, play a key role in ensuring that our clients’ employees are paid the NMW. Beware, it’s not just a matter of implementing the new rates on 1st October each year, there are other things to consider:-

Failure to record working time properly: Workers must be paid NMW for any additional time, as well as for their normal working hours

Apprentices: All apprentices are entitled to a NMW apprentice rate for all the time they are in work or training.

Read more »