introduce a set of core and enhanced standards which will ensure employees have the knowledge, tools and confidence to understand and look after their own mental health – and the mental health of their colleagues have support in place to help prevent mental illness being caused or worsened by work and equip those who have a mental illness to thrive be held to account for delivering these standards by their relevant regulators so that employees can have faith they are being introduced effectively The report from Lord Dennis Stevenson, a long-time campaigner for greater understanding and treatment of mental illness, and Paul Farmer CEO of Mind and chair of the NHS Mental Health Taskforce includes 40 recommendations for the public and private sector. The Prime Minister is today writing to all metro mayors and key business groups including the CBI, IoD and Federation of Small Businesses to draw attention to the review and encourage them to implement the recommendations in their organisations and across their networks.
The government will consider the wider recommendations and respond in due course.
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Treasury could axe NI relief on employer pension contributions 1 November 2017
FT Adviser reports that pension experts have warned that the government could be set to end a national insurance exemption on pension contributions from employers.
Currently, employers have to make a minimum 1 per cent contribution to their employees’ pension, under automatic enrolment rules. These payments are exempted from paying national insurance under legislation published in 2006. According to Office for National Statistics (ONS) data, this exemption is believed to have had a cost for the government of £15.7bn in 2015 to 2016, the greatest amount in the last 16 years as the number of people signed up to their workplace pension due to automatic enrolment has increased.
Sir Steve Webb, director of policy at Royal London, is reported to have told FT Adviser that ending this national insurance exemption on contributions could be a way of getting some of the tax relief money back.
CIPP comment As we get nearer to the Chancellor’s Budget on 22 November, speculation mounts as to where additional funds for the Exchequer will come from. The Policy team will as usual be providing coverage via twitter throughout Philip Hammond’s speech so be sure to tune in on the day #AutumnBudget2017 . We will also provide our usual concise summary of relevant announcements after the event, which will be published on the news page of our website.
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DWP customer phone lines to become freephone 3 November 2017
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has provided an update which details news about work, working-age benefits, pensions and services.
Universal Credit customer telephone lines are to become Freephone this month. DWP will inform customers and partners of new Freephone numbers in advance of these changes. The Freephone numbers will be rolled out to all remaining DWP customer phone services by the end of the year. DWP publish Touchbase on a monthly basis and the latest edition sets out information on their workplace pension campaign ‘ Get to know your pension’ which advises employees on how new legislation affects them and the legal duties that apply to employers.
This month’s Touchbase also includes information on:
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
Policy News Journal
cipp.org.uk
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