The introduction of a new system of tax-free childcare vouchers to support working families with 20 per cent of childcare costs. The scheme will be phased in from 2015-16 and once fully phased in will provide support for children under 12, up to a limit of £6000 for each child per year; Implementing Universal Credit – to simplify the welfare system and make work pay, changing the incentives in the benefit system so that it acts as a springboard into work rather than a trap . We have yet to establish the impact, direct or otherwise, that Universal Credits will have on the employer, but we are experiencing the impact of Real Time Information and whilst it is early days we certainly can’t say at this stage that this has, in all cases, lightened the load for the employer? Together with vital pensions reforms – already introducing automatic enrolment into workplace pensions and bringing in the single tier pension from January 2016 – we are ensuring that, first that it pays to work, and then it pays to save. In doing so, we will help to reduce poverty and welfare dependency, setting people on a journey to independence.
Clearly the payroll industry is going to be taking centre stage in ensuring the delivery of a significant proportion of the government agenda in the coming parliamentary year.
National Insurance Contributions Bill
The main elements of the National Insurance Contributions Bill are:
Reducing employer NICs bills each year by, from April 2014, entitling every business and charity to a £2,000 Employment Allowance. Extending the General Anti-Abuse Rule to NICs, reinforcing the Government's commitment to tackle abusive avoidance. Strengthening legislation to prevent the use of offshore employment payroll companies (intermediaries) to avoid employer NICs. Removing the presumption for self-employment for limited liability partnership members.
Teachers Pay & Conditions
The Secretary of State accepted the STRB’s recommendations on the grounds that they will:
provide greater autonomy and more freedom for schools to spend their money as they see fit to meet their pupils’ needs. Remove the inflexibility of the current system. enable schools to develop pay policies that are tailored to their needs and attract and retain those teachers that have the greatest impact on their pupils. raise the status of the profession by enabling teachers to be rewarded in line with their performance and the most successful to progress faster than at present on the basis of annual appraisal. The changes come into effect from September 2013. A revised School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD), setting out the new arrangements for teachers’ pay, and Departmental advice to help schools reflect these in their own policies are now available on the DfE website. A further revision is expected to be made available in August 2013 to update the pay tables.
Pensions Bill - The main elements of the Pension Bill are:
The single-tier State Pension: A new flat rate pension set above the basic means test to replace the current two-tier system of basic State Pension and earnings-related additional State Pension, to be implemented from April 2016.
Changes to State Pension age:
CIPP Policy News Journal
16/04/2014, Page 47 of 519
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