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Policy team update
The CIPP’s policy and research teamprovide an update on developments
P ayroll professionals have been exceptionally busy this month, and similarly the CIPP policy and research team have been challenged by the ever-evolving government measures implemented to help businesses and workers through the economic turbulence created by coronavirus. Whilst these initiatives are to be applauded, as they are designed to help retain links to employment, the pace at which new policies have been amended has been difficult to keep up with, to say the least. Extended coronavirus job retention scheme Eagerly – and, we admit, impatiently – we awaited guidance on the job support scheme (JSS), and its two variations (‘open’ and ‘closed’) ahead of introduction from 1 November 2020. Though guidance was finally released on 30 October 2020, it was promptly withdrawn following the announcement the next day by prime minister, Boris Johnson, which confirmed that the coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) would be extended to run for the month of November. This announcement was made only a day before the new measure was to be introduced, giving businesses and payroll teams alike severely limited time to respond and adapt
to the changes. Following this, Rishi Sunak, chancellor of the exchequer, spoke in Parliament on 5 November 2020 to confirm that the CJRS would actually be extended until the end of March 2021. This means that the JSS will be postponed, and also that the job retention bonus (JRB), due to be paid out in February 2021, will no longer follow the same timescales, and a retention incentive will be deployed at a different, more appropriate, time. Once again, payroll professionals are having to deal with substantial changes within very stringent deadlines, so it is important that they are recognised and appreciated, during what will be an extremely busy – and, arguably, stressful – time. From a policy perspective, it has been difficult to keep track of the flurry of changes, but the team has endeavoured to keep members up to date with all of the news that will affect their day-to-day work. Policy and research updates As a reminder, the policy and research team publish updates through News Online which is delivered to members’ email inboxes the next day. If preferred, weekly news emails can be requested by amending your details in the member section of the CIPP website www.cipp. org.uk/my-cipp.html . News is also
cascaded through social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. The team also produce factsheets and FAQs, also available through the Policy Hub, and record a monthly webcast which provides an overview of a given subject. As you may imagine, coronavirus measures have dominated the webcast subjects this year, but are by no means the only subjects covered. Employer NICs holiday for employment of veterans HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) recently published a consultation – Supporting veterans' transition to civilian life through employment (http://ow.ly/NVKr30riOO8) – which ran from July until October 2020. This exercise explored some of the intricate details of the new entitlement to a secondary class 1 National Insurance contributions (NICs) holiday for a twelve- month period being introduced from 6 April 2021 for employers of veterans. Although the consultation placed a lot of emphasis on certain definitions, including what the definition of a ‘veteran’ should be, and what the definition of ‘civilian employment’ should include, from the results of a survey and a virtual thinktank meeting that the policy team held it became apparent that payroll professionals were not particularly interested in these elements of the consultation. They were, however, concerned by the government’s proposals for administering the initial year of the relief. The intention is that employers will pay secondary class 1 NICs on the pay of the veterans for tax year 2021/22 and will then claim a credit for the amount in question via real time information (RTI) –
...payroll professionals are having to deal with substantial changes within very stringent deadlines, so it is important that they are recognised and appreciated...
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | December 2020 - January 2021 | Issue 66 6
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