The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
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New consultation on the creation of flexible apprenticeships published 21 April 2021
A new consultation has been launched, which requests views on how new flexi-job apprenticeship schemes could potentially work.
The flexible apprenticeship opportunities will be available to certain sectors, including the creative, agriculture and construction industries.
Apprenticeships last for a minimum period of 12 months, so some sectors which offer flexible employment patterns and short-term roles have found creating enough opportunities to be problematic.
Flexi-job apprenticeships were initially introduced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, within the Budget, delivered on 3 March 2021. The new flexi-job apprenticeships would mean that an apprentice would be able to work across a range of projects, with a variety of employers to gain the full skills and experience they require to complete the apprenticeship programme. As an example, an apprentice who worked within film, TV or theatre production would now have the opportunity to work on a variety of productions throughout their apprenticeship. In July 2021, employers will have the opportunity to apply for a portion of the £7 million fund which will be made available to both create and test new flexi-apprenticeship schemes, with the intention of the first approved flexi-job apprenticeships commencing in January 2022. The £7 million will be available across the periods of 2021-22 and 2022-23.
The flexi-job apprenticeship consultation will close on 1 June 2021, after running for a period of six weeks. It requests views from employers, apprentices, sector bodies and existing apprenticeship training agencies.
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Stance on Mutuality of Obligation remains unchanged 30 April 2021
Peter Aldous MP submitted a question for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which queried whether or not HMRC had changed its stance on updating the Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) tool to include consideration of Mutuality of Obligation (MOO).
Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Jesse Norman, responded:
“‘Mutuality of obligation’ (MoO) is a term often used to describe the basic obligations that exi st between a hirer and a worker. These basic obligations are where the hirer is obliged to pay remuneration, of any kind, and the worker is obliged to provide their work or skill in return. MoO is important because without it there can be no contract for the supply of a worker. CEST does account for MoO on these terms and is clear in guidance to users that it can only be used to determine employment status for tax where there is such a contract in place. CEST then considers this contract, testing the employment status factors, and determines whether the engagement is more likely to be employed or self-employed for Income Tax and National Insurance contributions purposes. After receiving feedback during user testing, HMRC provided a link to guidance on MoO on CEST’s landing page to make this understanding clearer to users of the tool. The guidance can be found on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-status-manual/esm0543(opens in a new tab) .”
CIPP comment
The CIPP sits on the off-payroll working reforms forum and we would love to hear your views – do you think that MOO should be included in the CEST tool? Do you have any more general feedback that you would like to provide on your experiences of using the tool? Email the Policy team at Policy@cipp.org.uk. Thank you in advance.
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
Payroll: need to know
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