Archive for December, 2011

We have focused on the very brief history of RTI, covering the topic from the time that it was first discussed up to the publication of draft regulations and the call for more pilot employers last month.  Much of this information has been for information purposes only, ensuring that we know the answers to: Question [...]

The Income Tax Act 2007 is the primary piece of legislation which governs the tax that is paid under Pay As You Earn.  The Act allows for the Basic Rate limit and personal allowances for people under 65 to increase by indexation each year (the Retail Price Index rate).  As income tax is still a [...]

The following is a selection of questions that have been posted to our Forum over the past week.  Can you contribute to any of the discussions?………… Final Month Salary Calculation An employee left on 25 February 2011 and was paid for 19 days in their final payslip.  They are now querying the calculation, saying that [...]

Christmas is not a time for being miserable and we can be excused for putting aside negative issues until we are well into the New Year. But employers need to be realistic, and however anxious we are to shower our employees with goodwill over the festive season, nevertheless we need to recognise that we are [...]

Christmas may well be a season of great joy and bonhomie for employees, but for the employer it can be a time of great peril. Standards tend to drop the closer one gets to the last working day. Managers may be inclined to turn a blind eye to this situation, fearing unpopularity, but in so [...]

Last month you were given this problem: A large army of infantry was marching along roads through a country at a steady 3mph. The column was 9 miles long. A despatch rider at the rear of the column was sent with an urgent message to the commander at the front of the column. He delivered [...]

Christmas premium We have decided to keep our helpline open over the Christmas weekend. What rate must we pay the affected employees for working on Christmas Day and Boxing Day? Reply Unless there are collective agreements determining these arrangements, you are free to pay whatever the two parties agree, provided that it satisfies the National [...]

If you have not done so already, now is a good time to make your training plan for the coming year. As referred to below, training can make a huge difference to the performance of an organisation but its budget too commonly is a rough figure either plucked out of the air or guessed on [...]

The following is a selection of questions that have been posted to our Forum over the past week.  Can you contribute to any of the discussions?…………. Forum Post: Our client is looking to change the payday for its employees from the end of the month to the 15th.  How can this be achieved so that [...]

How quickly one week passes. After the excitement (!) of the Autumn Statement last week, we present the information again this week in the normal Newsletter, just in case you missed our ‘special’ last Wednesday. As we mentioned after the Statement, there really wasn’t anything too concerning for payroll departments, however, there is still plenty [...]

As part of the announcement of the Government’s Welfare Bill in February 2011, the Prime Minister announced a review into sickness absence.  This was to be jointly chaired by David Frost CBE, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce and Dame Carol Black, National Director for Health and Work.  This was all part of [...]

We are repeating this section which are all employment-law related, though, at the same time, payroll-related.  The Autumn Statement confirmed: Qualifying period for unfair dismissal to increase from one to two years from April 2012 All potential claims to the Employment Appeals Tribunal will have to be lodged through ACAS first A Rapid Resolution scheme [...]

In January 2011, a Green Paper was published entitled ‘Strengthening families, promoting parental responsibility: the future of child maintenance’.  Amongst the items discussed was a proposal to use income data directly from HMRC rather than the ‘non-resident parent’ when making the maintenance calculations. In October 2011, we reported on the consultation to abolish the Child [...]

Pensions Minister Steve Webb has confirmed that the Government is delaying pensions auto-enrolment for companies with 49 employees, or less.  The original staging date, as outlined in the Employers’ Duties (Implementation) Regulations 2010, was to commence in April 2014, with all employers eventually being live in the scheme from 01 September 2016. However, the April [...]

HMRC routinely reviews the published Advisory Fuel Rates every three months.  The current rates, effective from 1 December 2011, are added to the table below.  With the exception of one of the LPG rates, there are no changes to rates that applied from September 2011. Employers may choose to: implement the new rates immediately, or [...]

State Pension Age The Pensions Act 2011 gave the green light to accelerate the State Pension Age increases to 65 for women from 2018 and 66 for men and women by September / October 2020. Now, we are told that it will be accelerated further to 67 between April 2026 and April 2028. This increase [...]