We are delighted to announce our new HR Bulletin from Debbie Glinnan of Parallel HR.
If you would like to Subscribe to Debbie’s HR News Letter CLICK HERE
July 2015 HR News
Good news for childcare costs
From Autumn 2015, families may be able to benefit from a new tax-free childcare scheme (TFC). To qualify, single parents/both parents in a couple must work at least 8 hours per week and earn between £2,420 to £150,000 per year.
Parents pay into an online account as and when they want to. For every 80p they pay in, the Government will add another 20p. The maximum allowance will be £2,000 per child under the age of 12 (or 17 for a child with disabilities).
If your employees currently receive childcare vouchers, they can choose to continue to do so. They would not then be eligible for the TFC scheme. Depending on their individual circumstances, employees may be better off continuing to receive childcare vouchers. Click here for a comparison.
Your employees should receive a letter from the Government telling them they are eligible to apply but why not score some points by telling them first?
Auto-enrolment around the corner
By now, many of you will have received a letter from the Pensions Regulator advising you of your auto-enrolment date. If you have not received a letter yet and don’t know your staging date, click here. You will need your payroll reference number.
With up to 60,000 companies each month hitting their staging dates in 2016, pension providers and the Pensions Regulator expect to be busy.
Even if you already contribute to a scheme, it’s worth checking whether it complies with auto-enrolment. If you don’t comply with Auto-Enrolment in time, you could receive a £400 fixed penalty for non-compliance. If this continues after being contacted by the regulator, you could face additional fines of £50 per day.
Please contact me if you need any help with this.
Driving licence goes green
The paper counterpart driving licence is now consigned to history. If you have company car drivers, you can check for any penalty points on line for free.
Drivers will need to obtain their licence details using their driving licence number, National Insurance Number and postcode. They can then generate a “check code” which the employee passes on to you to allow you to view the licence details. You can then print or save these details for your records.
Employee to obtain licence information using:
https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence
Employer to check licence information using:
https://www.gov.uk/check-driving-information
Ask your employee to produce this check code when you issue an offer of employment. That way, if they are ineligible to drive, you can pick it up straight away.
A timely reminder
P11Ds for 2014/15 must be filed by 6th July 2015.
June 2015
Zero Hours Contracts
As of 26th May 2015, exclusivity clauses have been banned in zero-hours contracts.
If you employ anyone on a zero-hours contract, have a read through now to make sure you are not preventing anyone from working elsewhere when they are not working for you. It’s also a good opportunity to review these contracts to make sure they are still legal and appropriate to your business. For example, they should be accruing holiday for any hours that they work.
If you need any advice or support, please do contact me.
National Minimum Wage
Another recent change is to the fines payable if you are found to be paying below the minimum wage.
The potential fine has now been increased from 100% of total unpaid wages up to £20,000 per notice of underpayment to £20,000 per worker.
For details of the National Minimum Wage rates, please click here.
Holiday reminder
At the end of the holiday year, do you find your employees still have lots of holiday to take but no time to take it in?
We are now into the last half term before the school summer holiday. Why not send a reminder to people to book their slots quickly to avoid being disappointed.
It’s worth reminding them that if they don’t use their holiday, they may lose it.
—
Debbie Glinnan
Parallel HR Ltd
T: 01438 870544
M: 07815 622761
W: www.parallelhr.co.uk