100TH ISSUE
Hundreds of pieces of legislation
Cybill Watkins MCIPP, product legislation manager, Zellis, discusses how to make a start on keeping on top of the hundreds of pieces of legislation which impact the payroll profession
H ands up, who loves legislation? Hands up, who knows they need to follow legislation in payroll but haven’t got a clue where to start in this fabulous, crazy, ever-changing world? Having a good knowledge of legislation can really enhance your payroll role and can also open a whole host of different career paths to you. For me, I eat, sleep and breathe legislation in the world of software. For you, it could be something similar. Or it could be another role in the software world. Or you could decide to support the payroll professionals of the future by becoming a tutor, trainer or a support specialist. You may wish to specialise in a specific area such as national minimum wage (NMW) and take on an advisory role. There’s no end to where your career can take you when you have a detailed knowledge of legislation. It’s the hundredth issue of Professional so we thought we’d speak about something related to one hundred . We’re heading towards nearly 200 pieces of legislation which impact payroll, so we’ve sneakily used hundreds instead. The thought is there, and we know that this number will only keep growing. Outside of our close-knit world, the perception is very different. Everyone knows they must pay statutory deductions such as
tax and National Insurance (NI), and some know a little more about our world and various areas such as NMW, salary sacrifice and employment law. However, there are much less people outside the payroll industry who understand the further complexities within each of these areas. So, for instance, that NMW isn’t as simple as just paying someone £11.44 an hour. We, as payroll professionals, must understand these types of legislative complexities to succeed in our profession and careers. “There’s no end to where your career can take you when you have a detailed knowledge of legislation” Many of the standard yearly legislation changes we see in payroll processing may not require extensive research, such as the increases to NMW and the statutory pay rates. But we still need to be aware of them. This also applies to tax and NI
rates / thresholds, as most software holds this information. However, don’t let this make you complacent and prevent you from performing checks on the data and system to ensure everything is working correctly, and always continue following these changes in legislation to keep your knowledge up to date. Recently, I was asked where someone could make a start if they wanted to extend their knowledge of all things legislation-related, or how to diversify their career if it’s an area they really enjoy. Here are some of my top tips.
Social media LinkedIn is a good place to find people and groups with common interests. There are people like me, who write about anything they find interesting, or there are specialists you can follow in areas such as NMW or tax. You can follow the CIPP on
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | May 2024 | Issue 100 30
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