ACAS RIOT ADVICE FOR EMPLOYERS & EMPLOYEES AFFECTED

Acas have published useful advice for employers and employees affected by the rioting in London and other major cities.


Employers, employees and Payroll Services who may be affected by the riots are advised by Acas to:

•    Keep in touch with each other - try and get in touch with your employer to let them know if you can't get to work. Contact your employees to discuss work arrangements, if your business has been damaged,
•    Be flexible about working hours and location, perhaps using smart phones and laptops to help you keep working where possible
•    Be fair - as an employer, try and take into account the circumstances surrounding absence or timekeeping issues before deciding on the action you might take - in terms of leave and pay.

Remember these key points

If employees are unable to get to work because of travel disruption, employees are not automatically entitled to pay.

No legal right is there for employee’s to be paid by an employer for delays in travel - however your business may have other arrangements within your employment contracts.

Employers are able to decide when statutory holiday entitlement must be taken by employees, but a minimum notice period must be provided before taking statutory leave. This notice period is twice the length of the period of leave the employer would like them to take. So, an employer must give you two day's notice if they want you to take one day's leave.

Unpaid leave

Employers might suggest that employees take a day of unpaid leave if unable to travel to work, but cannot force staff to agree to this unless included in their employment contract, or an employer could require employees to take a day's contractual holiday entitlement if employees cannot travel to work due to the disruption.

Time off to care for children/dependents

Employees that cannot get to work because of school is closure or their normal child care arrangements are disrupted, may have the right to time off for dependents.

Closuring the workplace

When work is unavailable to staff (e.g. the business has closed and they do not work at home) and they are available to work, employers have no right to refuse them pay. Employers also cannot insist that their staff should take annual leave unless adequate notice is give.

More information is available on the Acas website link here



Thanks for reading, if you need any help or want some advice on holiday entitlement or any other payroll services visit us at www.citylightspps.com

Payroll Survey – Integrating Tax and NIC

Would integrating tax and NICs reduce burdens on business? The government has published a call for evidence on whether this might remove economic distortions and provide a fairer tax system.

The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professional (CIPP) have created a survey for so that you can provide a formal response. Expect the survey to take approximately 20 to 30 minutes of your time. It has a mixed style of questions due to the nature of the document published by the government hence the time required to complete the questionnaire. The closing date for submissions of this survey is the close of business on 2 September 2011, giving sufficient time for the CIPP team to analyse the results and produce a thorough response.

Please take time to complete the survey as once again similar to RTI for reporting tax and NICs, this could lead to a fundamental change as to way the profession calculates tax and NICs.

Payroll services are constantly changing and there are some big overhauls of the PAYE system over the brow of the hill and around the corner. If you want to keep a head of the times and stay one step ahead of your competitors try our outsourced payroll services at no obligation.

Debt Collection Through Payroll Services and PAYE

On 20 July 2011 regulations came into force for the first time to allow HMRC to collect up to £3000 through the payroll PAYE code. Responses to these changes are collated here within this document published on HMRC’s website: Summary of responses: Collecting debts through PAYE

The PAYE code has always been able to collect small underpayments of certain taxes by HMRC, but the change in regulations means underpayments and debts will now be collected:
•    Underpayments arises when HMRC reconcile information on PAYE (employee) taxpayer records following the end of the tax year; for example if a taxpayer has more than one job or more than one source of income or receives payroll benefits.
•    Debts are where taxpayers fail to pay what’s due on time and the outstanding sum gets referred to HMRC’s Debt Management team for recovery action.

HMRC will use this additional method of recovery for Self Assessment debts and Tax Credits overpayments. Letters will go out to selected individuals with outstanding debts from August 2011, and to Tax Credits claimants with overpayments due for direct recovery, from early October 2011.

The letters will notify them that the money they owe can now be collected through their pay/salary thus reducing their PAYE code. The tax code would then require adjusting to collect the debt over twelve months from April 2012. For individuals whom do not wish their PAYE code to be reduced, they should contact HMRC once a letter has been received.

Safeguards to prevent hardship and excessive deductions will still apply as usual for payroll PAYE.
Information about recovering debts from PAYE Payroll codes is published on Business Link website: www.businesslink.gov.uk/problemspayingHMRC




If you need anymore help or have any questions with PAYE codes then get in touch with us: www.citylightspps.com - we're always happy to help!