October
2009
Rise
in Minimum Wage
As
from 1st October, 2009 there will be an increase in the minimum wage
rates as follows:-
16 to
17 year olds - Increase to £3.57 per hour
18
to 21 year olds - Increase to £4.83 per hour
22
years and over - Increase to £5.80 per hour
We would
remind you that payment of the minimum wage rate is a legal requirement.
July
2009
Paternity
leave extension deferred
The UK
Government had planned to give fathers the right to claim up to 6 months
paternity leave from April 2010. Because of the economic slowdown, they
have decided not to bring the changes in that soon. As a result fathers
are still only entitled to two weeks leave which is usually taken immediately
after the baby is born.
The legislation is already in place to give the extra leave but it will
not be implemented until the economy can cope.
Mothers and adopters were also going to have the right to additional
statutory pay (up from 9 to 12 months) but it looks as though this is
also on hold.
The legislation
in more detail:
The Work
and Families Act 2006 already allows regulations to be made that would
permit working fathers to take up to 26 weeks of paternity leave, some
of which can be paid, if the mother returns to work before the end of
the one-year maternity leave period to which she is entitled.
The new
provision would be available during the second six months of the child’s
life, so in effect, fathers would be able to ‘share’ some
of the maternity leave which is currently only preserved for the mother.
The entitlement would also extend to couples who are adopting and to
partners and civil partners of mothers.
A Government
spokesman has now said that the Department for Business Enterprise and
Regulatory Reform is continuing to review the appropriateness of all
new regulations due to come into force in the current economic climate
and as a result, a date has not yet been announced for extending paternity
rights.
At the
same time, the Government had proposed to extend statutory maternity
pay and statutory adoption pay from nine to 12 months (to coincide with
the period of maternity and adoption leave) and it looks as if this
is also on hold.
June
2009
P11D
filing deadline approaches
Employers
should be aware that the filing dates for 2008-9 P11D and P11D(b) is
6 July 2009. Those employers who filed a paper P11D(b) form last year
are currently being sent new paper forms and a payslip.
All relevant
businesses should receive these forms by 15 June 2009.
Businesses
who submitted online forms last year are being sent a payslip and an
online reminder to file the form before the deadline.
This year,
a new quality standard for the P11D forms has been introduced. This
means that paper forms that are not properly completed will be returned
and online submissions must be fully complete before submission is possible.
The quality standards are designed to check that the employer reference
is included, that employees' names and National Insurance numbers are
completed and that the list price of any car provided to an employee
is shown on the form etc.
Businesses
filing online can file the forms using commercial payroll software or
HMRC’s online facility.
If you
need help completing individual forms, or filing returns, please contact
us soon as the deadline is fast approaching
April
2009
Click
here for the latest in Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory
Paternity Pay(SPP) & Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) for 2009/10
Statutory
Sick Pay for 2009/10
Any employee
earning an average of £95.00 per week or more will automatically
qualify for SSP as soon as they commence work for you. You are obliged
by law to pay this to your staff. The current rate for SSP is as follows:
£79.15
per week - Payable for up to 28 weeks
SSP is
paid on a daily basis and the daily rate for SSP is the weekly rate
(as shown above) divided by how many days the employee works and rounded
to the nearest penny.
The first
three days that an employee is off sick are classed as "qualifying
days" and are unpaid and from the fourth day the employee is paid
SSP. Your employee needs to be off for four continuous days or more
to get any SSP.
For the first 7 days of sickness the employee should provide a self-certificate
and any days after that should be a doctors sick note.
If the
employee concerned does not have any set days that they work then they
will be banded as working seven days a week.
This will mean that they will get the SSP earlier but the daily rate
will be reduced i.e. working 7 days per week £11.31 daily rate.
In certain
circumstances you may be able to reclaim some of the SSP paid out from
the Government. The calculation to reclaim any SSP is done on a month-by-month
basis and you can reclaim any SSP paid out over and above 13% of the
total NI liability in that same month.
For further
more detailed information please contact Arch on 0161 655 2000
January
2009
Advice
for employers - read our recently published article -
"Unfair Dismissal - Don't Get it Wrong"
December
2008
Temporary
Reduction in Standard Rate
From 1st December, the standard-rate of VAT will be temporarily reduced
to 15% until 31 December 2009 (N.B. zero-rated and 5% reduced-rated
supplies are unaffected). On 1 January 2010, the standard-rate will
revert to 17.5% again. Where payment has been received or invoices issued
at 17.5% prior to 1 December 2008, but the goods are not provided until
after that date, suppliers may choose to issue a credit adjusting the
VAT to 15%. The usual time limit for issuing such credit notes is 15
days, but this will be extended by secondary legislation to 45 days.
HMRC have issued a detailed guide on the issues which can be downloaded
at www.hmrc.gov.uk
November
2008
Pre
Budget Report
Set against
a backdrop of global economic uncertainty, Chancellor Alistair Darling
has announced a raft of measures in this year’s much-anticipated
Pre-Budget Report, aimed at stimulating the economy and boosting
consumer confidence. For
our concise report, click
here.
October
2008
Rise
in Minimum Wage
As
from 1st October, 2008 there will be an increase in the minimum wage
rates as follows:-
16 to
17 year olds - Increase to £3.53 per hour
18
to 21 year olds - Increase to £4.77 per hour
22
years and over - Increase to £5.73 per hour
We would
remind you that payment of the minimum wage rate is a legal requirement
and it is imperative that you inform us of the changes as soon as possible.
As we have incomplete personnel details and no hourly rates for some
clients we will require each client to check their own personnel records
to ensure that they are compliant with Government Legislation.
