POLICY HUB
Is providing menopause support an exempt benefit? Q: The company is about to launch a menopause support plan, which involves an annual consultation with a menopause specialist costing £295. We believe this would be an exempt benefit as it’s a health assessment. Is this correct? A: Legislation provides for an exemption for one annual medical assessment per year under Sections 266 and 320B, 266(3) (g) and 267(2)(i) of the ITEPA 2003. For reference, see: Employment Income Manual (EIM21765) – https://bit.ly/2DyGaJi. However, the legislation states this medical check-up is a physical examination of the employee by a health professional for, and only for, the employee’s state of health. The menopause may be considered as a disability under discrimination law and could hinder an employee’s capabilities when performing the duties of employment, so the legislation may now apply. A direction from HMRC would be the advised route to take in this unique situation. n
payments outside of the Bacs process must be recorded in box 58B. However, the real time information data item guide states that the value of deductions from net pay in the pay period must be entered. Please can you advise what data items must be included? A: The CIPP understands that, although data item 58B may be used for the hash match, it shouldn’t only be used for Bacs payments. This field is actually for deductions made from salary and there’s no instruction that non-Bacs payments shouldn’t be included. If non-Bacs payments were disregarded, HMRC would have no record of the employees’ deductions. HMRC requires details of all deductions to ensure national minimum wage compliance is being met. Bonus payments and the calculation of attachment of earnings orders Q: An employee will receive a bonus payment at the end of February and has asked if we can exclude this payment when calculating his attachment of earnings order for council tax. Can we do this? A: The bonus must be included within the calculation for the attachment of earnings order. Earnings defined under Section 24 of
the Attachment of Earnings Act 1971 states that wages or salary including any fees, bonus, commission or other emoluments payable to the employee shall be included within the calculation for an attachment of earnings. For reference, see: https://bit. ly/3imcQuB.
What considerations are there for employers hoping to offer menopause support?
Don’t wait until it’s too late
Payroll Assurance Scheme Can you afford penalties of up to £10,000* per day for non-compliance? Make sure your people and processes are working, and get ahead of any nonconformities before they become a problem.
Visit cipp.org.uk/PAS to see how we can prepare you
* Correct at time of publication
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 87 | February 2023
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