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DWP
Government Responds to Review of Pensioner Taxation
In 2011, HM Treasury asked the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) to look at simplifying the system for the estimated 5.6 million people of pensionable age who pay tax. In March 2012, the OTS published the first stage of their review and identified a number of issues for further review and consideration: Simplification of the [...]
RTI – The continuing saga – Part 1 – Unpaid Absence
Yet again HMRC have made a decision to make changes to the FPS reporting procedures which should have been foreseen many months ago during the pilot year. The change revolves around the Unpaid Absence field (153). Guidance on completion of this particular field has been sparse to [...]
GOV.UK
Last week, we reported that the DWP had migrated to the ‘Inside Government’ part of the gov.uk Website. This made 21 out of 24 Government departments that were all centrally-located. We can report that all 24 Government ministerial departments have now moved their corporate Websites to gov.uk. These individual Websites will eventually be phased out. [...]
DWP on the Move
For information, the Department for Work and Pensions has migrated to its new home of ‘Inside Government’ on the gov.uk Website. Note that all information on the dwp.gov.uk Website will remain valid until the end of 2013. Comment By 2014, all Government ministerial Departments, together with many other public bodies, will merge to this central [...]
Direct Earnings Attachments – An Employer’s Guide
In January 2013, we publicised the Direct Earnings Attachment (DEA) that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has introduced for the purposes of recovering overpaid benefit payments directly from an employee’s salary. The DWP will encourage the claimant to agree voluntary recovery payment arrangements directly with them, however, where such arrangements cannot be agreed, [...]
The Single-Tier Pension
On 17 March 2012, the Chancellor, George Osborne, announced on the Andrew Marr show on the BBC that the Single-Tier pension would be brought forward by one year to 2016 rather than 2017. On 19 March 2013, a Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) press release confirmed speculation that the Single-Tier Pension will be introduced [...]
Consultation on Improvements to Auto-Enrolment
On 25 March 2013, the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) announced a Consultation on ‘technical changes’ to improve the Auto-Enrolment process. Draft legislation was published alongside the Consultation with the intention that these are effective from April 2014. However, the primary legislation that is necessary will be included in the Pensions Bill 2013 meaning [...]
Single-Tier Pension 2016 NOT 2017
On 17 March 2012, the Chancellor, George Osborne, announced on the Andrew Marr show on the BBC that the Single-Tier pension would be brought forward by one year to 2016 rather than 2017. The initial date was outlined in the DWP’s White Paper ‘The Single-Tier Pension: A Simple Foundation for Saving’ in January 2013. At [...]
The Percentage Threshold Scheme
On 17 January 2013, the Government published its response to the review into sickness absence that was published on 21 November 2011. The report, ‘Health at Work – Independent Review of Sickness’, was jointly sponsored by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) and had a [...]
Auto-Enrolment Thresholds per Pay Frequency
In December 2012, the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) outlined the Government’s proposals for its annual review of the thresholds for 2013/14. This annual review is a requirement of the Pensions Act 2008 and resulted in Automatic Enrolment (Earnings Trigger and Qualifying Earnings Band) Order 2012, which set the thresholds for 2012/13. In summary, [...]
OTS Final Report on Review of Pensioner Taxation
On 11 July 2011, HM Treasury asked the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) to look at simplifying the system for the estimated 5.6 million people of pensionable age who pay tax. Specifically, the remit was to identify the parts of the tax system that caused the greatest difficulty, especially where pensions are received from multiple [...]
DWP Publishes Response to Independent Review of Sickness
As part of the announcement of the Welfare Bill in February 2011, the Prime Minister announced a review into sickness absence. This was jointly chaired by David Frost CBE, the former Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce and Dame Carol Black, then National Director for Health and Work. The objectives of the review [...]
National Minimum Wage Compliance and Enforcement
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), in association with HMRC, have published their latest report ‘National Minimum Wage: Compliance and Enforcement’. This covers an 18-month period to 30 September 2012 and sets out the Government’s view – ‘everyone who is entitled to the NMW should receive it’. he National Minimum Wage was established [...]
State Pension Reforms
On 14 January 2013, the Government presented its long-awaited White Paper on plans to introduce a flat rate, Single-Tier Basic State Pension (BSP). This is a detailed document as part of the Coalition Government’s stated aim of reforming the State pension system. Whilst we digest the entire contents of the 108 pages, we provide a [...]
Direct Earnings Attachments
In October 2010, the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and HMRC published a report entitled ‘Tackling Fraud and Error in the Benefits and Tax Credits System’. This detailed how the Government intended to take decisions on recovering monies that had been paid in error or claimed fraudulently through the welfare system, aggressively addressing these [...]
RTI – Universal Credit Regulations 2013 Laid
The Universal Credit (UC) is a Government flagship initiative which, according to their own publicity, will streamline and simplify the benefits system and make work the more attractive and affordable option. On 10 December 2012, the Government laid The Universal Credit Regulations 2013 before Parliament. These were accompanied by Regulations for the Jobseeker’s Allowance and [...]
Auto-Enrolment Thresholds Announced for 2013/14
On 06 September 2012, Pensions Minister Steve Webb announced the Consultation for the 2013/14 revision, suggesting that the Earnings Trigger and the Lower and Upper limits of the Qualifying Earnings Bands remain respectively aligned with the PAYE Threshold, the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) and the Upper Earnings Limit (UEL). At time of the Consultation, the [...]
Preventing Illegal Working – Guidance for Employers
Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 (Sections 15 to 25) was enforced on 29 February 2008 and set out the legislation to prevent illegal working in the United Kingdom (UK). These sections replaced the previous legislation under the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996 (Section 8). The intention of the legislation is to ensure that [...]
Auto-Enrolment Thresholds 2013/14
As announced in our Autumn Statement Newsletter, the Personal Allowance is set to increase to £9,440 from April 2013. This is an increase of £235 on the previously published figure of £9,205, announced at Budget 2012. In total, the increase from 2012/13 to 2013/14 equates to £1,335 in additional tax allowances. As we reported in [...]
Pensions
We already knew from Budget 2012 that legislation would be introduced in the Finance Bill 2013 to remove the tax and NICs advantages of an employer paying a part of an employee’s remuneration into a family member’s pension pot. At Budget 2012, the report stated that ‘technical improvements will also be made to the annual [...]
