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National Minimum Wage

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The largest ever legal claim against the care sector has been launched in what could turn out to be one of the worst breaches of pay rules ever seen.

Seventeen care workers claim to have been paid less than half the minimum wage, the company says that is not correct and that it pays its workers an average hourly rate that exceeds the minimum wage.  An employment tribunal will now examine whether the company is correct to claim it pays above the minimum wage.

October 2016 sees the increase in National Minimum Wage rate, you can view them here NMW2016

 

 

 

 

 

Tracing your Pension: Is it Lost?

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Tracing your pension is not always easy, especially if you’ve been in more than one scheme or have changed employer throughout your career. But it’s important that you do claim your pension, so the sooner you trace a lost pension, the better. Many people are concerned about lost pensions. Fortunately, there are several ways you can find them.

Are you sure it’s lost?
This is the first question you need to ask yourself. Even if you have a certificate from a pension scheme, it doesn’t always mean that you have a pension entitlement.
You might have had a refund of your contributions when you left that employer for example. It’s also good to know that many older pension schemes may have required a certain number of years of membership from you, before giving you any benefits.

As a rough rule:
If you left the employer before April 1975, it’s likely you will have received a refund of your pension contributions. If you didn’t pay into the scheme you probably won’t be entitled to anything, unless you were in the scheme for at least 15 to 20 years.
If you left the employer between April 1975 and April 1988, you will have a pension, provided, you were over age 26 and had completed five years in the scheme. If not, you will almost certainly have had a refund of your pension contributions and have no further rights.
If you left the employer after 1988, you will be entitled to a pension, as long as you completed two years’ service. If you left the pension scheme with fewer than two years’ service, you probably received a refund of your contributions at the time you left.

Looking for workplace pensions
The first place to contact is the Pension Tracing Service. This has a register of all workplace schemes.
If your company scheme was contracted out, you might be able to trace it through the National Insurance Contribution Office.
If you still aren’t successful, contact the pensions advisory service.

Looking for personal pensions
If you’re looking to trace a personal pension, then please contact the pensions advisory service. They will need as much information as possible regarding the scheme, your dates of employment and copies of any certificates you still have. One of their pensions specialists, can talk you through what you will need and what they will do to try to help you find your pension.

For more information, please contact The Pensions Advisory Service. A pension specialist from their team will be happy to help with whatever pensions-related question you have. Their help is always free.

Workplace Pension Guidance

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Many small employers have still to arrange their workplace pension schemes and register their scheme with The Pension Regulator, so here is some further guidance.

The Pensions Regulator send letters to all employers 12 months, 6 months and one month before their staging date, informing you of your duties. The Pensions Regulator website has an online duties checker you can complete to find out what you need to do and when.

If you have yet to choose a pension scheme and don’t know where to start, there is some information here which can help you choose a pension scheme, with a list of providers who can offer pensions to small employers. Not all schemes offer the same level of services and some will charge more than others.

If you already have an existing pension scheme, you will need to check with your pension provider whether it is a qualifying scheme for automatic enrolment. If not, you will need a separate scheme.

If your business only has directors and does not have any staff, you may be exempt, but it is important to check and if you are, you will still need to inform The Pensions Regulator that you are exempt. Again, the online duties checker will confirm what you need to do.

If you only have one employee with earnings under the threshold, you still have legal duties to meet. You will need to tell your staff about automatic enrolment as they can still choose to opt-in to a pension scheme. You will need to complete and submit a declaration of compliance to let The Pensions Regulator know what you have done to meet your duties.

The declaration of compliance must be submitted on time, within 5 months of your staging date, so do not leave it to the last minute and risk the chance of penalties or fines!

Childcare Vouchers during Maternity Leave

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One issue that causes employers a lot of anxiety is where a woman is receiving childcare vouchers (CCVs) as part of a salary sacrifice scheme and then goes on maternity leave. The business must continue to provide the CCVs during maternity leave and cannot opt the employee out of the salary sacrifice scheme.  However, the ruling on a case that recently went to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) determined that such an arrangement is not a “benefit” for the purposes of maternity leave legislation and therefore can be stopped during the period of maternity leave.  However, if CCVs are provided as a benefit in addition to salary then they must be provided throughout the ordinary and additional maternity leave.

Before employers take any steps to suspend CCVs during maternity leave, they should exercise caution and carefully check the wording of agreements that form part of a salary sacrifice arrangement

CCVs cannot be sacrificed from SMP

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.