MEMBERSHIP INSIGHT
On your behalf Policy team update
Diana Bruce MCIPPdip, CIPP senior policy liaison officer, provides an update on recent developments
Guidance for calculating holiday pay The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is planning to review the existing guidance on holiday pay. Whilst the advice on GOV.UK currently provides guidance for individuals looking for a basic understanding of their entitlement, it is widely accepted that it is not sufficient for employers to understand their full legal obligations (or for individuals with a more technical question). The intention is to produce more detailed technical guidance, aimed at employers, which can sit alongside the existing guidance. Initial thinking is that the more detailed guidance should include: ● What to do if you don’t have twelve weeks of pay data i.e. where someone is new in the job. ● How to make the calculations where pay is made each calendar month, rather than on a weekly basis. ● The date from which the reference period is calculated. ● How to handle holiday pay for those with irregular/zero hours contracts. ● How to deal with those working on short contracts/temporary workers. ● How to deal with unpaid weeks/periods of absence. ● What pay elements need to be included for the EU-derived entitlement versus the domestic entitlement. ● How outstanding holiday pay is calculated for those leaving a job. ● How to deal with term-time workers. Where possible the plan is to include case studies, particularly for tricky but quite common situations like zero hours
contracts or temporary workers. If there are any other situations which you feel would benefit from more detailed guidance please do email policy@cipp. org . uk with your suggestions and we shall pass them on to BEIS for consideration. Parental bereavement leave and pay BEIS has also published its response to the parental bereavement leave and pay consultation which confirms key aspects of the policy to be set in regulations. As a result of the responses received, government has taken the following decisions: ● the policy will use a broad definition of a ‘bereaved parent’ centred on the notion of ‘primary carer’, with the guiding principle being that the relationship should be parental in nature ● parental bereavement leave and pay can be taken as a single block, or as two separate weeks ● employed parents will have a window of 56 weeks to use the entitlement ● notice requirements will be flexible and will distinguish between leave taken very soon and leave taken at a later period ● evidence requirements will mirror existing requirements used for other family leave and pay rights, where it is practicable to do so. The parental bereavement leave and pay measures apply to Great Britain only. As we stressed in our consultation response to BEIS, and at every opportunity thereafter, it is vital that this statutory right is supported by clear, comprehensive and timely guidance. The CIPP policy team will continue to work with BEIS and will
review and publish draft guidance when it becomes available. Reporting of non-taxable lump sum payments The HMRC Pensions team is encouraging scheme administrators to begin reporting the payment of non-taxable lump sum payments following corrections being made to the real time information (RTI) system. The updates that have been made to the RTI online service will prevent P6 coding notices being incorrectly issued to beneficiaries in receipt of pension lump sum death benefits that are entirely non- taxable. HMRC have apologised for the length of time taken to resolve this issue. Scheme administrators can now resume reporting non-taxable pension lump sum death benefit payments through RTI. For 2018–19, scheme administrators can find guidance on how to report these payments in part 2.2.7 of the 2018 to 2019: Employer further guide to PAYE and National Insurance contributions (https://bit.ly/2sQ4D7C). HMRC accept that it may take time for scheme administrators to amend their processes to report these payments again, but it wants to encourage pension scheme administrators to start reporting these as soon as they’re able to. Pension tax relief We ran a quick poll in October about how important tax relief was to employers when it came to them choosing their pension scheme. We asked: “Did the availability of tax relief for your low paid workers factor into your/your company’s pension scheme choice?” Of those who responded: ● 14% said yes, it was a critical factor ● 18% said yes, it was a factor, but not a
...the plan is to include case studies, particularly for tricky but quite common situations...
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | December 2018 / January 2019 | Issue 46 6
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker