PIXIE PAYROLL Blog

Normally it is the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget that is much anticipated but this year, with the increase in the cost of living, huge fuel and utilities price increases as well as the impact of the war in Ukraine, his Spring Statement also generated much interest.

Rishi Sunak delivered his statement to Parliament on Wednesday and here are some of the key points for employers and employees.

National Insurance

Although he didn’t scrap the planned increase in NICs that’s due to come into force in April (you can read about that here), he did announce another big change to National Insurance which is that the threshold for paying it will increase by around £3,000 to £12,570 in July 2022. That puts it on par with income tax and means people earning £12,569 or less won’t now have any taxation deductions taken from their pay packet after the change comes into effect.

That should help mitigate against the rate increase and so should mean most employees won’t see too much of a difference although employers will still be paying a higher Employers’ NIC rate.

Fuel Duty

The sudden and dramatic increase in petrol and diesel prices we have seen recently have affected all of us. Relatively low paid workers such as carers who use cars to get around have been especially hard hit and so the 5p reduction in fuel duty for 12 months will be welcome.

It should mean that we will see an immediate reduction in price at the pumps from 6pm on Wednesday.

Household Support Fund

The Chancellor has doubled the size of the Household Support Fund by adding £500m to the pot. The fund is administered by local authorities and here in Cornwall, £4.5m has already been provided and is being distributed by the council, charities and other partner organisations to support those in need. Although the figures haven’t been confirmed, we can therefore expect a further £4.5m to make its way to us.

Have a look at this webpage for more information and links to financial crisis help and support: https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/benefits-and-support/household-support-fund/

Employment Allowance

Employers whose Class 1 NIC liabilities were less than £100,000 in the last tax year can claim Employment Allowance to offset against National Insurance liabilities they have now. It is currently set at £4,000 but it was announced today that this will be increased to £5,000 immediately.

In the same way the NIC threshold was raised to mitigate against the tax increase for employees, this will help some employers reduce the impact of the extra taxation.

To check whether your business is eligible for the Allowance, click here: https://www.gov.uk/claim-employment-allowance

Future tax plans

The Chancellor also announced a plan to reduce the rate of income tax by 1% to 19% in 2024 and that he would be looking at a range of measures to encourage greater productivity, innovation and training with businesses and employers.

There was also a startling statistic that it is predicted there will be 400,000 fewer people in the workforce in the coming years compared to before the pandemic, caused by a combination of early retirement, migrants returning home and ill-health. That means the pressure on recruitment and managing staff shortages isn’t going away and employers will have to work hard to attract employees to their businesses.

As always, if you have any questions about how the measures in the Spring Statement will affect your payroll or employees, just get in touch.

As February is the month of love, we thought for our blog this month, we’d share some ideas on how employers can show their employees some appreciation, which can boost employee satisfaction, make them feel valued and reduce staff turnover. It goes without saying that being happy at work, working in a comfortable environment, feeling supported day-to-day and being appropriately paid should be the first consideration for all employers but if that’s all in place, here are some more ideas.

Flexible working

If there’s one thing we’ve learnt from the pandemic, it’s that flexible working and hybrid working models are effective and are appreciated by employees. It gives them the chance to work around family responsibilities, outside interests or even what time of day they perform best – are they larks or owls?

If your business allows, break away from the 9-5 and consult with your employees on developing a flexible working policy for them.

Free food

Some businesses, such as Facebook, provide three meals a day for employees but we’re not suggesting everyone needs to go that far. This benefit could be as simple as placing a few boxes of cereal in the kitchen for those who didn’t get time for breakfast, keeping a steady flow of tea and coffee going during the day or arranging a regular delivery of fruit for everyone to enjoy.

An occasional staff lunch is always welcome; arrange a pizza delivery and get everyone to leave their desks for a while for a bit of downtime and networking.

Staff discounts

Can you arrange for local businesses to give your employees discounts just for working for you? Corporate memberships at gyms are really common but also consider veg box delivery companies, local cafes & restaurants, travel agents or even new car dealerships.

Paid time off

Many businesses offer their employees extra time off for special occasions. A day off on their birthday is a nice gesture but you could also think about times where some time off might reduce stress such as when moving to a new house or in the lead up to a wedding.

Another option might be to offer employees paid time off to pursue their outside interests; for example, one day a month to volunteer for a charity that is close to their hearts or to attend a class.

You should also make sure your paid maternity, paternity and adoption leave policy is as good as it can be as well as the policy for child care or other caring responsibilities.

Saying thank you

Do you say a simple but heartfelt ‘ thank you’ to your employees often enough? It’s a good idea to keep a note of peoples’ work anniversaries so they can be marked; it doesn’t have to be a special or even an especially long one – you can mark a 1^st anniversary as well as a 30^th.

If someone has put in extra effort, achieved something significant or supported a colleague, saying thank you at those points is a good idea too. You could combine this with the pizza lunch and use the achievement as a reason for the special occasion.

Health benefits

Private medical insurance, health plans, dental plans, access to 24/7 GP support or mental health care are really valuable benefits and will give employees real choice and flexibility when managing their and their family’s health, especially now when the NHS is under so much pressure.

There are many options available for this type of benefit and it is worth talking to a specialist about it before making any decisions, especially as this benefit is taxable.

We’d love to hear from you

If you have any questions about employee benefits, how they are taxed or how they might affect your employee’s take home pay, just get in touch and we can give you some more information.

2022 is now well underway and there are even early signs of spring here in South West Cornwall. The year ahead will see some changes and challenges so for this month’s blog, we thought we’d do a rundown of what’s coming up in 2022.  

Wage rates increase

From 1^st April this year, the National Living Wage, National Minimum Wage and wage rates for younger people and apprentices will increase:

	Current Rate	New Rate from April 2022
National Living Wage	£8.91	£9.50
21-22 Year Old Rate	£8.36	£9.18
18-20 Year Old Rate	£6.56	£6.83
16-17 Year Old Rate	£4.62	£4.81
Apprentice Rate	£4.30	£4.81

These are relatively generous increases with the National Living Wage increasing by 6.6% and the 21-22 year old rate increasing by 9.8% which is good news considering inflation is currently high. But it will increase the wage bill for employers so if you need some forecasts on your future wages bill, get in touch.

National Insurance increase

There is a plan to increase the amount of National Insurance employers, employees and the self-employed pay from April this year by 1.25%. The government has committed to spend this extra money on health and social care following the pandemic and estimates that the increase will raise an additional £12bn. Only those earning over £520 per month pay National Insurance and the increase will not apply to those claiming the state pension.

The increase was voted through in Parliament last year and would need another vote in order to reverse the decision but with the general cost of living increases recently, there have been some calls to scrap the increase.

Extra bank holidays

This year marks 70 years since the Queen’s accession to the throne and so we have been granted an extra bank holiday day, and a postponement of the late May bank holiday, in order to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee. Thursday 2^nd and Friday 3^rd June will be holiday days and so employers will need to plan for either closing their workplace, allowing staff time off in lieu or extra pay for those businesses which will stay open.

Let’s just hope it will be a warm, sunny weekend for all the celebrations.

Covid-19 and business support

This is where our crystal ball starts to fail us. As I write, the restrictions that were put in place just before Christmas to tackle the Omicron variant have been lifted and apart from some residual mask wearing requirements, there is a feeling that things are pretty much returning to normal.

However, as we have learnt from experience over the last couple of years, a few surprises could still be around the corner so we’ll be keeping a close eye on developments and will update our social media and blogs should anything change.

There are some support schemes still open such as the Omicron Hospitality & Leisure Grant which is now open to those who have been invited to apply or the Test & Trace Support Payment Scheme for eligible people who have tested positive for Covid-19.

As always, if we can support you with help and advice on any aspect of your payroll, get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.

When I originally planned to write this blog post looking back on 2021, I have to admit I thought things would be a bit more positive. But the discovery and spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has put us all on the back foot a bit as we head into the festive season. But there have been some positive developments this year so it’s still worth reminding ourselves of how far we’ve come.

New year, new vaccines

The year started with hope as the incredible effort by the NHS to get us all vaccinated started. Down here in Cornwall, it was as efficient as in much of the rest of the country and soon we were discussing Pfizer or Astra Zeneca, sharing stories of side effects and proudly holding our vaccination cards.

As we now know, many of us have now had or are about to receive our booster dose of the vaccine and so we end the year and begin 2022 once again in the midst of a vaccination drive.

Continuation of Furlough

As we described in our September blog which you can read here, we started 2021 with the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in place and planned to end in March, then April and finally being extended until September.

Managing payroll schemes that were part of the CJRS has undoubtedly been one of my biggest challenges this year especially with those employers who chose to run under flexible furlough, but it has also been gratifying to be able to help my clients through extraordinary times. Businesses have survived and household incomes have been retained thanks to CJRS and so are in a better place than they might have been as we close the year.

I was also anticipating having to handle quite a few redundancy situations as the furlough scheme started to taper and finally came to an end in September but thankfully that hasn’t been the case so far.

Emerging from lockdown

Another significant impact of the pandemic for me this year has been supporting employers as their businesses reopened as we progressed along the road map out of lockdown.

For some, that meant bringing employees back off furlough and for others, it meant recruiting and training new team members. In the end, the final stage of lifting lockdown was delayed for four weeks but it ended just in time for us to have an incredible summer here in Cornwall – it was so busy and payroll preparation was non-stop! Yes there were a few traffic jams but it was good to see my hospitality clients busy again.

The Great Resignation

That’s quite a big fancy title for what, on the ground, is a simple case of extreme staff shortages. Hospitality has been particularly hard hit but many other industries such as construction and healthcare have had problems recruiting staff.

There are a number of factors at play, but some have attributed it to people using the lockdown to reassess their lives and choose a change of direction. The ONS reported this week that unemployment is down to 4.3% and there are a total of 1.22m job vacancies currently available. In November, 257,000 people were added to payrolls in the UK which certainly reflects how busy I’ve been with adding new staff to payroll schemes and preparing contracts of employment.

With such a tricky recruitment environment,  we dedicated our July blog to best recruitment practice which you can read here.

2021 for Pixie Payroll

As I mentioned before, there’s no doubt that 2021 has been another busy and challenging year for me as I’ve supported employers and employees through another year of the pandemic.

I have been very pleased to have added to my client base this year and it’s been so good to meet new clients and manage new payroll schemes. On a personal level, 2021 has also been an exciting year for our family as we welcomed my new grandson Oliver in August.

So as the festive season is nearly here, I’d like to wish you all a safe and happy Christmas and best wishes for 2022.