Archive for February, 2012

On 27 January 2011, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Tribunals Service published a joint consultation document entitled ‘Resolving workplace disputes: A consultation’.  This set out the latest Government proposals for reforming employment laws.  The consultation closed on 20 April 2011.  The intention of the reforms is to deliver ‘a flexible, [...]

In certain circumstances, the Social Security (Categorisation of Earners) Regulations 1978 and the Northern Ireland equivalent requires that a self-employed lecturer, teacher, instructor or similar be treated as an employee for NICs purposes.  The historic reasons for this are that the working conditions of the self-employed person are similar to those of the employed person.  [...]

The term “parental leave”, as currently used in employment legislation, refers to a period of up to four weeks’ unpaid leave in a year that may be taken by both natural and adoptive parents, but limited to: 13 weeks in the period up to a child’s fifth birthday, or, in the case of a disabled [...]

HMRC have published their Digest of Current Double Taxation Treaties which they state is ‘a guide to possible entitlement to double taxation relief for certain types of UK income received by the residents of the territories listed in the table. Further Information HMRC  – Double Taxation Digest January 2012

This is not the usual video that I imagine is requested often on YouTube.  HMRC have produced an 11 minute video which gives examples of inaccurate information held by payroll and HR systems and the possible implications.  They give some frightening examples of the bad data that we are sending them, for example: A recent [...]

As always, my interest level increased when I was alerted to a new video release last week.  When I heard that the title was ‘Dump the Dummies’, my interest further increased.  Why on earth would someone recommend an online video to me about weaning a baby away from the dummy because it may encourage breathing [...]

In January of this year, we discussed the issue of HMRC’s Starters and Leavers Scenarios document which proposed the abolition of both the P45 and the P46.  The P45 was to be replaced with an undefined format Leaver Statement, issued to leavers from an RTI employer – i.e. an employer who was live on RTI.  [...]

Companion at informal warning I recently called an employee into my office to give her an informal warning, but she insisted on being accompanied by a colleague. Was she within her rights? I allowed it on this occasion. Reply The right exists only if the employee is called to a formal meeting, which this apparently [...]

Do you employ agency temps and understand their new rights? Do your Christmas presents to customers and from suppliers bring you into conflict with the new Bribery Act? Do you know how to deal lawfully with employees who reach the age of 65? If you are in any way responsible for other employees and have [...]

If you are competing, our advice is simple – just keep practising, and don’t bother with the rest of this article. But otherwise read on because although there should be a good deal to enjoy and hopefully much to celebrate, nevertheless these Olympics are likely to bring unusual problems for employers. A bit of thought [...]

Advice about dealing with bad behaviour usually addresses clear issues such as lateness, absenteeism, theft or other topics that are reasonably clear and definable. However some employees are not quite that bad, are barely over the line, are not all that bad – or whatever phrase we choose to justify our not taking action against [...]

Last month you were left with this problem: The managing director rang the payroll department and told the trainee who answered the phone that he needed by lunchtime without fail the average salary of the ten people who made up the management group. He rang off before she was able to tell him that the [...]

2012 is, without doubt, going to be a memorable year.  There are four major events that come to mind, all of which have major implications for the payroll department and are featured, to some extent, in this Newsletter: Today, 06 February 2012 marks 60 years since Her Majesty The Queen’s accession to the throne.  This [...]

The Employers’ Duties (Implementation) Regulations 2010 provides how the auto-enrolment responsibilities under the Pensions Act 2008 will apply to employers.  Specifically, it outlines the auto-enrolment staging dates. On 25 January 2012, the DWP published a revised timetable of staging dates for auto-enrolment.  This was not altogether unexpected, given their announcement in November that the dates [...]

HMRC have published tax information and manuals for the 2012/13 tax year – follow the links below to access the tables. Please remember that HMRC no longer issue paper tables Further Information HMRC – Taxable Pay Tables Manual Method 2012 HMRC – Taxable Pay Tables Calculator Method 2012 HMRC – E13 Day-to-Day Payroll 2012 HMRC [...]

The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills has laid The Employment Tribunals (Increase of Maximum Deposit) Order 2012 before parliament. This Order gives authority for Regulations to be made authorising employment tribunals to order the payment of a deposit of up to £1,000 if a party wishes to continue to participate in proceedings. The amendment [...]

Pensions minister Steve Webb is considering lifting the statutory restrictions on NEST in response to number of competitive schemes entering the market. Following a question from Labour spokesman Greg McClymont in the the House of Commons this week, Mr Webb said: “Labour introduced these restraints, but the situation has moved on with unforeseen competitive developments [...]

Last week, in Part 1, we started to look at the role of the FPS in the RTI cycle.  We advised that the FPS may be used for the purposes of Payroll Alignment when there is no requirement for the employer to submit an EAS.  If used this way, the first FPS must show every [...]