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Embracing technology
Neil Tonks ChMCIPPdip, legislation manager, MHR, talks through the myriad of interactions payroll has with technology and why there’s nothing to be frightened of in this space
P ayroll has seen huge technological change in recent times, a process which shows no sign of slowing down. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the pace of change but there’s really no need for this. Most of these changes can have positive impacts. You’ll likely have seen your payroll system supplier adding new features to their system on a regular basis. Suppliers spend a lot of time ensuring systems not only remain compliant with legislation, but that they also exploit technological advances to add value to the payroll function. Do you evaluate new features to see if you can make use of them? It’s important to do this in order to to get the best from the system, but it’s something which often gets overlooked in the day-to- day pressures of a busy payroll office.
along the way. When the time to retire arrives, accessing their savings is complicated because they can’t remember which schemes they’ve saved into.
currently reassessing the options for rolling it out, but it’s likely to be within the next three years.
“There’s a consultation currently ongoing
into ways of encouraging
Communications with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Another way technology is being used is to alleviate the problems taxpayers have with contacting HMRC by phone. There are always queues and it can take an age to get through. This is partly because HMRC gets a lot of calls. Research has shown that many of them are relatively trivial in nature, just requests for basic information. This kind of thing is ideal for online delivery and to address this, HMRC has developed the personal tax account (PTA) which is available via the GOV.UK website and the HMRC app. The PTA allows taxpayers to interact with HMRC in a range of ways. For example, you can: l view your tax code and details of how it’s been established l see your earnings and tax / National Insurance (NI) in the current and historic tax years across all employers l see your NI contributions record l view your NI number. You can also perform tasks such as claiming tax reliefs (don’t forget your CIPP membership fee qualifies if you pay it yourself) and access self-assessment forms should you require this.
The pensions dashboard is designed to solve this problem. It will locate all the pension pots a person has and make them visible in one place, along with their state pension. This aids retirement planning, as the whole picture can be seen. It might also encourage people to manage their savings during their working life, for instance, consolidating small pots into one scheme where the rules allow this (after taking professional advice, of course). One impact on payroll is that pension providers will become more focussed on the quality of the data you supply to them, since the dashboard will only be as good as the data it shows. When will this be available? That’s a good question as the government is employers to access occupational health advice to assist getting long-term sick employees back to work”
The pensions dashboard It’s not only payroll system suppliers who are exploiting new technology; the government is getting in on the act too with several initiatives. In some cases, the impact on payroll will be tangential but it’s still worth keeping an eye on them. One such initiative is the upcoming pensions dashboard. The cause of this is today’s mobile workforce. People who move between jobs frequently may contribute to a number of different pension schemes
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | October 2023 | Issue 94 60
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