Adjusted for inflation, full-time workers’ weekly earnings decreased by 0.4% compared with 2016. This is the first time since 2014 that there has been a fall in this measure and reflects a higher level of inflation in April 2017 (2.6%) compared with recent years, for example, in April 2016 inflation was 0.7%. Earnings (not adjusted for inflation) in 2017 rose by more among the lowest paid workers. Earnings at the tenth percentile for full-time workers rose by 3.5% compared with 2016 and the percentage of full-time workers earning less than two-thirds of median hourly earnings has fallen from 19.4% in 2016 to 18.4%. In April 2017, the gender pay gap based on median hourly earnings for full-time employees decreased to 9.1%, from 9.4% in 2016. This is the lowest since the survey began in 1997. Median weekly earnings for full-time employees in the private sector were £532 (up 2.8% on 2016) compared with £599 (up 0.9%) for the public sector. While private sector median earnings were down to around 85% of public sector earnings between 2010 and 2015, the proportion has risen in 2016 and 2017 to 89% this year. Median weekly earnings for full-time workers are highest in London (£692) and lowest in Wales, North East, Northern Ireland, Yorkshire and The Humber, and East Midlands (all approximately £500). In 2017, the median rate grew most in East Midlands (3.4%) and least in Yorkshire and The Humber (0.8%).
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Phased roll-out of faster cheque clearing system has begun 7 November 2017
The phased roll-out of a new, image-based cheque clearing system will speed up cheque processing significantly for customers across the UK.
The roll-out began on 30 October by the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company (CCCC). Cheques processed via the new system will mean that if a customer pays in a cheque on a weekday they will be able to withdraw the funds by 23.59 on the next weekday (excluding bank holidays) at the latest. Many banks and building societies are likely to allow access to the funds earlier than this. Initially, the volume of cheques going through the new system will be small and the vast majority of customers will not notice any change to how quickly their cheques clear. However, over time, increasing numbers of cheques will be cleared using the new system and more and more customers will benefit from the faster timescale. At some stage in the summer of 2018, all of the UK’s banks and building societies will clear all cheques via the image- based system to the faster timescale. The precise date as to when this will happen will be announced by the industry in due course. Until then, two clearing systems will operate in parallel, which means that some cheques that customers write or pay-in will be cleared more quickly via the image system, and some will clear to the existing, six weekday timescale through the current, paper-based system. Banks and building societies will be advising their customers of their individual roll- out plans as appropriate. Customers will still write cheques as they do today and give or post them to recipients in exactly the same way as they always have. Cheque recipients will still be able to pay in cheques in the normal variety of ways, such as at a bank or building society, by post or at an ATM. This continuation of regular customer practice is particularly important for charities, which receive many donations via this payment method; and for any other people that may prefer to carry on using cheques in exactly the same way as they always have. Cheque imaging is also about providing more choice, and it means that some banks and building societies may offer their personal customers the additional option of paying-in an image of the cheque - by using a secure mobile banking app on their smartphone or tablet - rather than having to go to a bank to pay it in. For business and charity customers banks may provide desktop scanners linked to their online bank account, allowing them to pay in any cheques that they receive as digital images.
For more information about how the new process will work, visit the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company (CCCC) .
CIPP comment
Government is consulting on legislation for two measures to support the introduction of the Image Clearing System (ICS) for cheques. The first concerns the use of cheques as evidence of payment. The proposed legislation will ensure that customers
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
Policy News Journal
cipp.org.uk
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