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Declaration of Compliance

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Auto enrolment has meant more employers have now reached their staging date and thousands more will be staging in the next year. You may have chosen your pension provider, enrolled your employees and started to make the payments. This will now be an ongoing administrative process. However, your auto enrolment duties do not end there. You must complete a declaration of compliance with The Pensions Regulator (TPR) to confirm you have met your duties.

All employers with one or more staff have a legal requirement to complete a declaration of compliance. Even if you have only one employee who does not want to be in a pension scheme, you still have to enrol them into a scheme before they can ask to opt out and you will still be required to complete the declaration of compliance. Each employer has a deadline to complete and submit their declaration which falls 5 months after their staging date. If postponement has been used a declaration cannot be completed until after the postponement period has ended, but you can start the declaration in good time and save your progress and return to it at a later date.

The declaration is a secure online form. You will need to register with the Government Gateway as an employer, if you haven’t already, before you can complete a declaration of compliance. Once you have all the relevant information to hand it should take around 15 minutes to complete. There is a useful checklist of the information you will need to complete the declaration which you can download here. If you do not complete the declaration within 5 months of your staging date, the TPR are likely to take action which could lead to a fine.

No Employers NICs for apprentices under 25

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From 6th April 2016, the government have zero-rated the employer National Insurance for apprentices aged under 25. This is to encourage employers to employ more apprentices.

The employer must ensure the apprentice is in a statutory apprenticeship scheme. Via the Gov.uk website, there are a number of links the employer can use to check. Assuming the apprentice meets the conditions, the employer must also have evidence to obtain the relief which is a written agreement between the employer, the apprentice and the training provider or evidence that the apprenticeship is receiving government funding. The written agreement must detail a) the approved government apprentice framework or standard, and b) a start and expected end date for their apprenticeship scheme. The employer can be both employer and the training provider, as long as they have been approved by the Skills Funding Agency in England.

For payroll there will be a change of National Insurance category letter – H – apprentice standard rate contributions, aged under 25 and G – apprentices who are foreign-going mariner, aged under 25 years. There is already category M in place for anyone under 21 years of age in operation. There are no changes to employees’ National Insurance Contribution rates.

If you have any current employees that this new change may affect, you will need to provide evidence and inform your payroll provider.

Click here for more information on apprenticeships.

Have you thought about the National Living Wage?

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There will be a new National Living Wage for workers aged 25 and above, set at £7.20 per hour from April 2016, with the intention that it will reach £9 per hour by 2020.

The new National Living Wage will apply for pay reference periods starting on or after 1st April 2016. The pay reference period is usually the period of time for which a worker will be paid. So, for example, for weekly paid employees working a week in arrears, the first pay period that needs to be paid at the NLW will be for the week 4th to 10th April, payable on 15th April 2016.

With HMRC’s policy of naming and shaming offenders it’s worth bearing in mind that the penalties for non-compliance are high, so please review all your workers age and increase their pay accordingly.

Automatic Enrolment: Are you ready?

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We have talked about this before, but it certainly bears repeating. Up to half a million small and micro employers will reach their staging date in the next 12 months and many will not be ready in time and could risk fines. The Pensions Regulator has written to every employer alerting them to when their auto enrolment duties start and reminding them to act. Despite the message to act early, it is expected that many employers will leave it too late or take no action at all. Don’t let this be you!

If you believe you do not require a workplace pension because you have no employees or have directors only, you must still inform The Pensions Regulator of this. Click here and answer the questions to determine if you need a scheme or not. You will need your letter code issued to you by The Pensions Regulator and your PAYE reference number.

Even if you have only one employee, you must do the following:
* know your staging date
* set up a qualifying pension scheme
* assess your workforce
* communicate with the workers
* enrol appropriate workers
* make contributions
* submit the declaration of compliance

Your first port of call should always be The Pensions Regulator website which will steer you through all your duties.

As a payroll bureau, we can assist our clients with all ongoing pension duties such as the assessing of workers and deducting the necessary contributions through their payroll, but choosing a pension provider, setting up that scheme and completing the declaration of compliance with The Pensions Regulator is the responsibility of the employer.

Auto Enrolment Minimum Contributions: Phasing Date Changing

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The date the Auto enrolment minimum contributions were due to increase has changed in order to align with the tax year. So now, instead of total minimum contributions increasing from 2% to 5% in October 2017, a delay of six months until April 2018 will be applied. Similarly, the planned increase in contributions in October 2018 from 5% to 8% will not be implemented until April 2019.

This is not, however, a delay to automatic enrolment and employers’ staging dates will remain the same. Aligning the contribution increases with the tax year will reduce the amount of admin required and should help employees who are used to seeing changes in their take home pay when the tax year changes.