Some employees have asked us not to pay early at Christmas time because they feel it impacts their budgeting. A few would prefer monthly paid so that they receive their wages on the same day each month. As the majority of our workforce are hourly paid this would be hard to accommodate. We have tried to change from weekly to monthly, however, all workers agreed to be paid weekly. This is due to the Homecare sector and all staff being on a zero hours contract. Some employees have been promoted and changed from being paid hourly to salaried. December pay date is always brought forward for payments to credit before Christmas Day – with payments usually made between 19th - 23rd. Some employees would prefer to be paid as usual on the last working day of the month. We occasionally get requests for advances of pay. Two employees requested monthly payments as this was what they were used to. One requested monthly payment to help organise his outgoings. One requested weekly payments so he could track his irregular payments easier. A lot of employees have asked to go back to weekly, the answer has been no We’ve had employees request to change from weekly to monthly in order to budget their finances more efficiently Anecdotal comments from respondents included the arrangements they make at Christmas, with one respondent explaining that they pay two working days before Christmas Day, and another saying that they always pay on the last banking day of the month, even in December. Employers often pay employees early in December, but the HMRC rules say that the normal (or contractual) payday must be reported to HMRC even if payment is made before this date. Whilst 68% of respondents pay employees early at Christmas, almost a fifth of respondents report the actual pay date to HMRC rather than the normal contractual pay date.
Given the widely reported concerns about the impact on Universal Credits of changing the payment date, this subject will be explored further in 2020.
If you pay your employees early at Christmas, what date do you report on the FPS?
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CIPP POLICY AND RESEARCH TEAM PAYSLIP STATISTICS COMPARISON
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