Mothers potentially missing out on millions in pension rights
Based on a new report, Royal London estimates that the number of mothers missing out on vital credits towards their State Pension has more than doubled in the last two years and now stands at around 50,000. The increase has occurred since the introduction in January 2013 of the ‘High Income Child Benefit Tax Charge’.
This rule means that couples where one partner earns more than £60,000 per year have the value of their Child Benefit wiped out by a tax charge. In response to this, growing numbers of mothers starting a family since January 2013 have declined to claim Child Benefit at all. This means however they are missing out on vital National Insurance credits towards their state pension. Each year missed could cost 1/35 of the value of the state pension of around £231 per year or over £4,600 over the course of a typical 20 year retirement. Together, these mothers have lost hundreds of millions of pounds in retirement.
Prior to the 2013 changes, the number of families receiving child benefit had risen every year since 2007. Since then, the number has been falling. HMRC themselves say: “The number of children for whom Child Benefit is being paid is now at its lowest level since HMRC began producing these statistics (in 2003)”.
A woman who started her family in early 2013 and decided not to claim Child Benefit could have missed out on state pension credits for five years so far. The total loss over those five years could be 5/35 of a state pension. This is over £1,000 per year in retirement. Over the course of a twenty year retirement, such women could be more than £20,000 worse off in total. Worse still, as things stand, Child Benefit claims can only be backdated for three months so they will never recover the lost pension rights.
BrightPay - Payroll and Auto Enrolment Software
Bright Contracts - Employment Contracts and Handbooks
Employers must now include voluntary overtime when calculating holiday pay
A landmark legal victory for Unite union means that employers must now include normal voluntary overtime when they are calculating holiday pay. The ruling is of major significance to workers who receive payments for working voluntary overtime but these payments are not reflected in their holiday pay. The union says that the ruling has set a legally binding precedent which employment tribunals across the UK are obliged to follow.
The Case
The case against Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council was brought by 56 council employees who worked on maintaining Dudley’s housing stock as electricians, carpenters, and plumbers. The employees worked regular voluntary overtime, beyond their fixed contractual hours, including Saturdays and they also elected to go on a standby rota every four weeks, to deal with emergency call-outs and repairs. The loss of earnings from holiday pay underpayments varied between £350 and £1,500 a year depending on each worker and how much voluntary overtime they carried out.
The decision by the employment appeal tribunal is the first to confirm that payments for entirely voluntary duties, such as voluntary overtime, standby, call-out work and travel-time linked to that work, should be included in the calculation of workers holiday pay.
Learning Points for Employers
The area of whether overtime should be included in employees holiday pay is a hot topic. This ruling echoes that of Fulton & Baxter v Bear Scotland Ltd when the ET found that overtime and other payments should have been included in the calculation of holiday pay.
Employers who do not pay employees normal voluntary overtime as part of their holiday pay are urged to reconsider this and make a change otherwise they might see themselves in hot water if a case were brought against them.
BrightPay - Payroll and Auto Enrolment Software
Bright Contracts - Employment Contracts and Handbooks
The biggest employment law decision ever in the UK?
This week saw the Supreme Court rule employment tribunal fees as unlawful. The ruling has been heralded as possibly the biggest employment law decision ever in the UK.
Employment tribunal fees of up to £1,200 were introduced in 2013. Consequently, we saw a dramatic fall in a number of tribunal cases being brought. In the year before the fees were introduced, there were 5,847 claims taken to employment tribunals. This fell to 1,740 in the year after fees were introduced.
The ruling has been welcomed across the board and is seen as a win for justice. In welcoming the ruling, the CIPD has said that fees were denying access to justice for many people, consequently, it is highly likely that some perfectly valid claims have never been heard.
What does it mean now?
First and foremost, any employee who brought a claim since 2013 will be refunded any fees they paid.
Going forward it is likely that we are going to see a significant rise in the number of claims being brought. Although there might be an initial rush, over time it is doubtful that claim levels will reach the dizzy heights seen pre-tribunal fees. There are two main reasons for this; we now have the Acas mandatory conciliation scheme, as well as the fact that unfair dismissal rights now accrue after two years service rather than one.
To help prevent being caught in a precarious tribunal situation or with a costly settlement, employers should at the very minimum ensure they have robust policies and procedures in place to rely on in such situations.
BrightPay - Payroll and Auto Enrolment Software
Bright Contracts - Employment Contracts and Handbooks
Are casual dress code policy’s becoming the norm?
It seems that many traditional firms are relaxing their formal corporate dress code policies in favor of casual dress codes in an attempt to attract young engineers, IT and tech workers. Recently Goldman Sachs adopted a new “year-round casual dress code policy”, applying it to their technology and engineering divisions. As the new policy came into place employees were reminded to monitor situations when it is best to adapt to business attire, particularly if they have client meetings.
This summer has seen a growing trend in the UK to move away from strict dress codes. The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has urged employers to relax dress codes, if only temporarily, during warmer weather, particularly giving relief to office male workers who often have to wear a suit, tie, and shirt. A growing number of companies are continuing on with this trend as many see strict dress codes as being outdated and are unable to justify not having a more relaxed dress code for certain sectors.
Fast-growing technology companies such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon, have long adapted to the expectation of a more relaxed generation of workers and are now synonymous with casual dress codes.
JP Morgan adopted a “business casual” dress code last year and although London bankers were initially wary of the change, reports now say that most people are embracing it and workers are rarely seen in a suit and tie unless they are at a client meeting.
If you do wish to implement a dress code policy for your business you must include the policy in your staff handbook and ensure all employees are aware of it. Whatever your policy, employees should be reminded to adhere to the highest standards of personal appearance at all times and dress in clothes that are suitable for the work situation.
BrightPay - Payroll and Auto Enrolment Software
Bright Contracts - Employment Contracts and Handbooks
Landmark ruling in battle for equal pension rights for same-sex couples
A retired employee of the chemicals company, Innospec has won his 11 year fight to ensure that his husband should receive the same benefits that would have been awarded to a wife of a heterosexual employee on his death.
Originally John Walker suffered a defeat in the Court of Appeal in 2015, when judges ruled that his claim failed because it applied to a period before gay civil partnerships were recognized by the law, but the five Supreme Court justices unanimously overturned that ruling, declaring that EU equal employment rights trumped English exceptionalism, and that on Mr. Walker’s death his partner will be entitled to a spouse’s pension.
Mr. Walker argued that having worked for the company for more than 20 years; he had made the same contributions to the pension scheme as his heterosexual colleagues so why would his partner not receive the same benefits as the wives of his male peers. It was submitted that Innospec’s refusal to provide a pensions to Mr. Walker’s husband in the event of his death “amounted to discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation which is contrary to the Framework Directive, regardless of Mr. Walker’s services or pension contribution”.
Mr. Walker wished to ensure that should he die before his husband that he would be adequately provided for. Before the ruling his husband stood to receive a pension of only a few hundred pounds a year but now will be entitled to the company spouse’s pension of over £45,000 a year.
BrightPay - Payroll and Auto Enrolment Software
Bright Contracts - Employment Contracts and Handbooks
What to be aware of when completing a reference check
As an employer, there will undoubtedly come a time that you will be asked to provide a reference check for a previous employee to their potential new employer. If you have a stand out employee with plenty of praise for them, then providing their reference check may seem like a doddle, but if you have an employee that parted on bad terms the reference check can be less than straightforward.
Why you should be careful completing a reference check
You have a duty of care to provide a truthful reference check to potential employers – but this may come at a price. Be aware that you run the risk of being sued for defamation if a negative reference that was given cannot be verified. A new employer can also claim against you if an employee who you gave a great reference for turns out to be less than satisfactory.
What can you do to protect yourself?
• You are under no obligation to provide a reference check for employees. If you wish to refrain from providing reference checks you may include a policy in your staff handbook stating this.
• If you are willing to provide reference checks you may adopt a policy to keep it brief and only divulge factual information, including:
- Dates of employment
- Job title
- Relationship to the candidate
- Final Salary
• If you are happy to provide a full reference check for an employee and answer behavioral questions regarding their work ethic, attitude, time keeping etc. ensure that all the information you provide is factual and true.
When you adopt a reference check policy that best fits your business, the key then is to be consistent. What you do for one employee you must do for all. Inconsistency could leave you wide open to a discrimination claim from a disgruntled employee. Be sure to include the policy in your staff handbook and make all employees aware of it.
Also, see…Top Tips for Reference Check Questions
BrightPay - Payroll and Auto Enrolment Software
Bright Contracts - Employment Contracts and Handbooks
The story behind BrightPay Connect ….. in 60 seconds.
We started out with the idea of automating the payroll backup to a secure location and, while that backup was being stored remotely, to optionally allow employee access to their current and historic payslips.
Then we were asked if we could provide a way for employees to change their personal details and this was followed by a suggestion that maybe the employees could request leave and that the employer, in deciding whether to approve these requests, would be able to view a company wide calendar to see who else was off on the requested dates. BrightPay Connect, an optional cloud add on was born.
More recently, we added the ability to upload documents, for example employment contracts, to the employee portal, so that all such documents would be easily accessible and the employer would also know if and when they had been opened by the employees.
Although it was not our intention starting out, it now appears that we have ended up with a fairly complete HR system suitable for most small businesses and, no doubt, the list of HR features will continue to grow.
As an employer, you can also provide access to your accountant or anyone else you might want to share with. You can also specify different access levels so that, for example, the person approving holiday requests doesn’t get to see how much your employees are paid.
The 2 things that customers really rave about are (1) you are up and running in seconds, as this is all the time it takes to sync all of your employees and (2) you can access your employees’ details from anywhere, from any device.
Book a BrightPay Connect Demo today to see how you and your employees can benefit.
BrightPay - Payroll and Auto Enrolment Software
Bright Contracts - Employment Contracts and Handbooks
Shared Parental Pay: Father wins sex discrimination case
A father, who was given only two weeks full paid parental leave when his wife was advised to return to work to combat post-natal depression, has won a sex discrimination claim. Mr. Ali was originally an employee for Telefónica whose maternity policy gave females with 26 weeks service the option of 14 weeks’ enhanced maternity pay, followed by 25 weeks at the rate of statutory maternity pay. The policy also offers new fathers two weeks full paternity pay leave.
Mr. Ali’s wife was diagnosed with post-natal depression following the birth of their child and was advised by medical staff that returning to work would assist with her recovery. Mr. Ali took two weeks paternity leave followed by a number of week’s annual leave. Upon returning to work Mr. Ali was informed that he was entitled to take shared parental leave but that he would only be paid statutory shared parental leave. Mr. Ali claimed direct sex discrimination in an employment tribunal.
Acknowledging that two weeks maternity leave is compulsory for new mothers, Mr. Ali argued that male employees should be given the same right to leave on enhanced pay for the next 12 weeks as their female colleagues. Mr. Ali argued that his employer’s policy viewed that a man taking care of his baby is not entitled to the same pay as a woman taking care of her baby, a choice that was denied to him and his wife.
Findings
The ET upheld Mr. Ali’s sex discrimination claim. The ET believed that the role of primary carer should be the choice if the parents and that it should be free of “generalised assumptions” that the mother should be the primary carer and get full pay. According to the tribunal, in this case, Mr. Ali was best placed to perform that role, given his wife’s post-natal depression.
Learning Points
Employers are advised that if they enhance maternity pay that they also enhance shared parental pay. 24.7% of employers already enhance, or plan to enhance, shared parental pay to match the enhancement of maternity pay. Employers should always have a clear maternity, paternity, adoptive and shared parental leave policies in their staff handbook.
BrightPay - Payroll and Auto Enrolment Software
Bright Contracts - Employment Contracts and Handbooks
Should holiday pay include overtime and commission?
With the unusually high temperatures we have gotten recently in Britain we can agree that summer is officially here. While that is great news for most, especially for employees packing their bags and getting ready for their summer holidays, it leaves employers with the headache of calculating annual leave entitlements. The areas of whether holiday pay should include commission and overtime have been hot topics of late.
Lock v British Gas Trading Ltd
Mr. Lock claimed that British Gas had calculated his holiday pay incorrectly by not including a commission element. Mr. Lock was employed by British Gas as a sales consultant and receives a basic salary plus commission based on the sales he achieves. During a period of annual leave, Lock saw his income was reduced as he was paid only his basic salary and not commission as he was not making sales during his holiday. The Employment Tribunal found that Mr. Lock’s holiday pay should include an amount to reflect the commission that he would have otherwise earned had he not taken annual leave. They found that by penalizing an employee’s holiday pay might discourage them from taking annual leave for the fact that they would not be able to make sales and earn commission during that period.
Fulton & Baxter v Bear Scotland Ltd
Fulton and Baxter (the claimants) claimed that Bear Scotland Ltd (the respondent) made unauthorized deductions from their wages when overtime and other payments had not been included in the calculation of their annual leave pay. The ET found that by omitting these additional payments from its annual leave calculations, the respondent had indeed made unauthorized deductions from the claimant’s wages.
Learning Points
These recent rulings indicate a new perspective on what is deemed to be fair in relation to the calculation of leave entitlements. In light of these cases, employers across the board are reviewing how they calculate holiday pay. The current position is that, if there is a fundamental link between commission received and the performance of tasks, the commission should be included in the calculation of holiday pay. Therefore, where an employee would have earned commission during the leave period had they worked, it should be included when calculating holiday pay.
BrightPay - Payroll and Auto Enrolment Software
Bright Contracts - Employment Contracts and Handbooks
How can BrightPay Connect benefit your payroll bureau?
BrightPay Connect our latest cloud add-on works alongside BrightPay Payroll. Payroll information is stored in the cloud and can be accessed online by you and your clients anywhere. BrightPay Connect offers additional innovative payroll and HR features that will enhance client relationships and increase revenue for your bureau.
Secure online Backup
Don't worry about manually backing up or losing your client payroll data again. Simply link an employer to BrightPay Connect, then the payroll data will be automatically synchronised to the cloud as you run your payroll or make any changes. Payroll files are automatically backed up every 15 minutes when open and again when closed down, offering cloud security against ransomware and cyber attacks. A chronological history of backups will be maintained which can be restored at any time.
Bureau Dashboard
Access your online multi-company dashboard which gives an overview of clients’ payroll information in one place. BrightPay Payroll and BrightPay Connect are automatically synced to capture annual leave and changes to employee details.
Client / Employer Access
Invite clients to their own company dashboard where they have online access to an overview of their employer details, employee requests, employee contact details, employee payslips and any outstanding amounts due to HMRC. Payroll reports that have been set up and saved in the payroll are automatically available on BrightPay Connect.
Employee Online Access
Employees can access their own personal self service portal from any computer, tablet or smartphone. They can view and retrieve their historic payslips and other payroll documents such as a P60, P45, or P11d which can be exported to PDF and printed. Employees can easily submit holiday requests, view leave taken and leave remaining as well as amend personal contact details.
Annual Leave Management
Your client can view a company leave calendar allowing them to effectively manage their staffing resources and plan ahead to ensure there is sufficient staff cover at all times. Once an employee requests leave, clients can authorise or reject the request which then flows back to the payroll. Clients will have full visibility of how much leave an employee has taken, the number of annual leave days remaining and how frequently an employee is on sick leave.
HR Solution
BrightPay Connect has built-in features giving your clients a ready-to-go HR solution. HR documents can be uploaded including employee handbooks and contracts, disciplinary documents, company newsletters, training material and more. Clients can also manage all leave for their employees including sick leave, annual leave, maternity leave and paternity leave.
Benefits for Payroll Bureaus
BrightPay Connect introduces powerful new online features that offers a range of benefits for your bureau, your clients and your clients’ employees.
- Add your own bureau or firm logo to boost the visibility of your brand and enhance client relationships.
- Clients get 24/7 access to their employees’ payslips and other payroll reports which will improve transparency for your client and their employees.
- Never worry about losing your client’s payroll data again as your data is now securely stored in the cloud.
- Make significant savings when bulk purchasing multiple BrightPay Connect licences. With savings of up to 75%, the more clients you sign up to BrightPay Connect, the more profits you can make.
- Increase revenue by adding a new payroll service offering to clients.
- Save time and reduce admin by automating and streamlining many internal payroll and HR administrative processes.
- Eliminate the administrative work and time it takes to send payroll documents to clients and their employees each pay period.
The two things that our bureau customers really rave about are (1) you are up and running in seconds, as this is all the time it takes to sync all of your client data to the cloud and and (2) you, your clients and their employees can access their payroll information from anywhere, from any device.
Read: Benefits of BrightPay Connect for Bureaus
BrightPay - Payroll and Auto Enrolment Software
Bright Contracts - Employment Contracts and Handbooks
