Pension scheme trustees may continue to use the pensions earnings cap, which officially ceased to exist from 6 April 2006, for the purpose of restricting pension payments from a registered pension scheme for a transitional period. The transitional period ends on the earlier of
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Posted February 4th, 2010 | No Comments »
In a detailed Green Paper published in January by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), the Government announced that further changes to family employment rights are under consideration in the following three areas: Continue reading
Posted February 4th, 2010 | No Comments »
The right to additional paternity leave and pay will be introduced from April 2011 (although some employees gain entitlement before that date). Following a third consultation period in late 2009, the Government has now published the final Regulations in draft. They are expected to come into force from 6 April 2010, providing up to a year for employers to prepare.
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Posted January 27th, 2010 | No Comments »
Pension reforms introduced in 2003 introduced a single minimum pension age of 50 for all registered occupational and personal pension schemes. This minimum age increases to 55 from 6 April 2010. From that date, pension scheme members will normally only be able to draw their pension when they are 55 or older.
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Posted January 20th, 2010 | No Comments »
Summary
A series of statutory Order and Regulations have been published that describe most of the final structure of the NEST scheme that will be introduced in 2012. In particular, they provide information about the operation of the new Corporation that will act as Trustee to the scheme, and the four-year implementation timetable so that every employer can now find out when the scheme will affect them.
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Posted January 20th, 2010 | No Comments »
From January 2010, HMRC’s new Dynamic Response Team will work on the most high profile and complex National Minimum Wage cases faced by HMRC, particularly in areas where employers are using migrant labour to undercut competitors by paying below the minimum wage. The team, made up of highly-trained specialist officers, is funded from the Department of Communities and Local Government’s Migration Impacts Fund, a £70 million Government fund that is paid for by a levy on migrant workers.
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Posted January 15th, 2010 | No Comments »
On 7 January, the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority (PADA) announced that the permanent and statutory name of the new national workplace pension scheme, due to be introduced from October 2012 onwards, will be “National Employment Savings Trust”, NEST for short. The logo shows the word “nest” on top of an egg, suggesting the idea of the scheme as providing a “nest egg”.
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Posted January 15th, 2010 | No Comments »
At the end of December, the following item appeared in News Online, published weekly by the Institute of Payroll Professionals (IPP) to its members.
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Posted January 15th, 2010 | No Comments »
The weekly rates of Statutory Maternity/Adoption/Paternity Pay and Maternity Allowance are increasing by 1.5% from week commencing Sunday, 4 April 2010, despite negative retail price inflation at September 2009 (-1.4%). The new weekly rate is £124.88 and the equivalent daily rate is £17.84. The qualifying lower earnings limit is increasing from £95 to £97 per week. Continue reading
Posted December 23rd, 2009 | No Comments »
On 14 December 2009, the Student Loans Company (SLC) introduced a new initiative to limit the occurrences of over-repayments of loans through the payroll. The problem arises frequently where regular deductions are made throughout a tax year and it is only when the year-end P14 is submitted that it is discovered that more has been repaid than is owed.
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Posted December 23rd, 2009 | No Comments »
