MEMBERSHIP INSIGHT
On your behalf
Policy team update
The policy team reports on consultation developments and also on questions about company car tax
Student loans A meeting of the Student Loan Consultation Group, held in September, saw stakeholders get together with officials from the Department for Education (DfE), the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Student Loan Company (SLC). This Group meets regularly throughout the year and has proved to be an effective forum for communicating progress and exchanging views on the operation of student loans. It is no secret that from April 2021 Scotland will have a new student plan in operation. Work is in progress to ensure readiness for this new system that will see all Scottish borrowers moving over from the existing plan 1 (where applicable) to the new plan which has yet to be named. Identification of Scottish borrowers is ongoing. At first glance it would be easy to think Scottish rate taxpayers can only be Scottish borrowers, but life is never that simple thanks to the transient nature of further education students. Research by HMRC has revealed that 70% of new employees are not returned with a ‘new starter checklist’. This leads on to discussion about the inadequacy of guidance to be found on GOV.UK which still indicates that the starter checklist is a direct replacement of the form P46 – which as we all know, it is not. Representatives from all government departments remain committed to
achieving improvements to the editorial guidelines of the Government Digital Services and to guidance in all areas of student loans. As borrowers approach the end of their loan repayment term, they can apply to repay via direct debit thus reducing the risk of overpayments accruing. Overpayments are avoidable by using this method and yet only 35% of borrowers take advantage of this option. Processes are in place to ensure that credit balances are monitored so that refunds can be made where possible. Discussion about the usefulness of employer prompts continues in a bid for HMRC to establish why so many appear to be ignored. Your experience and views on this would be welcome; please send to policy@cipp.org.uk . ...easy to think Scottish rate taxpayers can only be Scottish borrowers, but life is never that simple... Meanwhile, HMRC’s Software Developer Support Team and the DfE have confirmed that the thresholds from 6 April 2020 will be: ● ● plan 1 will increase from £18,935 to £19,390
● ● plan 2 will increase from £25,725 to £26,575 ● ● postgraduate loans thresholds will remain at £21,000. NMW consultation forum For some years the policy team has lobbied for a permanent stakeholder forum to be established to enable regular dialogue between stakeholders and BEIS, which are the policy owner of national minimum wage (NMW), and HMRC which is responsible for compliance (including enforcing the correct payment of arrears for NMW where non-compliance is found). More recently we would expect this forum to also have representation from the Department of Labour Market Enforcement (DLME). Lobbying initially began with HMRC Compliance Reform Forum (CRF) and at every opportunity we have made this request, to BEIS, to the Low Pay Commission as part of their annual reviews, and also to the director of Labour Market Enforcement, Sir David Metcalf, as part of his annual strategy call for evidence. We are pleased to report that at the time of writing we are looking forward to the first meeting which is expected to launch a NMW stakeholder forum. Company cars During the Budget of 2018 it was announced that a review would be launched on the impact of the worldwide harmonised light vehicles
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | November 2019 | Issue 55
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