Change of pay frequency A question was introduced in last year’s survey relating to whether businesses have changed the pay frequency they operate over the course of the last two years. Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming response was for no, with only 3% of respondents confirming they had indeed witnessed and / or administered a change to pay frequency within the past two years. In addition to this, the report queried whether employees had requested their pay frequency be changed. Only 7% of responses stated that yes, employees had requested a change to their pay date. Some of the qualitative responses confirm this is due to the way in which the universal credit assessment period falls, and this is something that further research will need to conducted. There also seems to be a preference for weekly pay cycles as opposed to monthly in some sectors. Many companies are reluctant to amend pay frequencies due to the upheaval it can cause, and the subsequent impacts on employees’ cash flow, but it appears that change could be imminent anyway. The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) recently published a scoping paper, which explores the potential of shifting the tax year end date from the current 5 April to either 31 March or 31 December. This is something the CIPP is particularly interested in due to the massive implications it will have on the work of payroll professionals.
Many companies opt to pay early in December, to provide employees with sufficient money to account for Christmas. Payroll departments must ensure that, where they do pay staff on a date that is earlier than normal in December, they still record the contractual pay date on the Full Payment Submission (FPS). 50% of respondents confirmed that they do exactly this, but worryingly, 19% include the date employees were actually paid on the FPS, and 2% admit they do not know which pay date has been used. This indicates further education is needed in this area to ensure widespread compliance. Employers need to be sure that they follow the correct process as recording the wrong payment date can impact things such as an employee’s entitlement to Universal Credit. 29% of respondents confirmed they do not actually pay earlier than the contractual pay date in December. Most popular pay days / dates Predictably, Friday continues to be the most popular pay date across weekly, fortnightly and four-weekly payrolls, commanding 75%, 83% and 86% of results respectively. This has been the case for all recent years in which the research has been conducted. Thursday was the second most common pay day, collecting 42% of responses for weekly payrolls, 27% for fortnightly payrolls and 14% for four-weekly payrolls. Again, this trend does not appear to have shifted in recent years.
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C I PP POL I CY AND RESEARCH TEAM PAYSL I P STAT I ST ICS COMPARI SON 2008 -2021
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