This is your monthly roundup of business and employment news for April 2022. The place to come for all the information you need to run your business smoothly according to latest government legislation and financial news.
First up…
Employment Allowance Increase
From 1st April 2022, the maximum Employment Allowance increases from £4,000 to £5,000.
What does this mean for your business?
Eligible businesses and charities will be able to claim a greater reduction on their secondary Class 1 National Insurance liabilities and, from the 2023 to 2024 tax year onwards, their Health and Social Care Levy liabilities. This measure supports businesses by providing tax relief on their employer secondary Class 1 NICs, and it’s expected that around 495,000 businesses will benefit from this increase.
Minimum Wage and Other Statutory Rates Changes
Rates for minimum wage are set to increase from April 2022. This will look as follows:
Family friendly leave rates are increasing from £151.97 to £153.66 per week – including maternity and paternity leave, shared parental, and parental bereavement leave. In addition, Statutory sick pay (SSP) is also set to change from £96.35 per week to £99.35 per week. The lower earnings limit, through which entitlement to family leave and sick pay is calculated, will rise to £123 per week.
New limits on employment statutory redundancy pay come into force on 6 April 2022. Employers that dismiss employees for redundancy must pay those with two years’ service an amount based on the employee’s weekly pay, length of service and age. The weekly pay is subject to a maximum amount, which is £571 from 6 April 2022.
Employment Tribunal Compensation Claims
From 6 April 2022, there will be an uplift in the basic and compensatory award for unfair dismissal. The basic award will rise to £17,130 (an increase from £16,320) and the maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal will rise to £93,878 (an increase from £89,493). This new rate applies for employees whose employment is terminated on or after 6 April.
Right to Work Checks
From 6 April 2022, holders of a biometric residence card, biometric residence permit or frontier worker permit have to use the Home Office online service to evidence their right to work. Physical cards are no longer acceptable for right to work checks. Employers are able to carry out digital checks for British and Irish nationals using a certified digital identity service provider. This will be optional rather than mandatory, and employers can continue to conduct manual checks if they wish.
IR35 Compliance
The extension of the IR35 rules on off-payroll working to the private sector took effect on 6 April 2021. Businesses should bear in mind that the enforcement “grace period” no longer applies from 6 April 2022.
What your business should do: Regularly review your status determinations to ensure that they are still accurate and that your business is IR35 compliant.
So that’s your April round up of employment news. Let’s recap on some of March’s information to make sure that you’ve covered your business’s bases:
March 2022
COVID-19
The legal requirement to self-isolate for those who test positive for COVID-19 ended on 24 February 2022, and from 1 April 2022, the government advice was for people to “exercise personal responsibility”. From 24 March 2022, workers self-isolating with no symptoms were no longer be entitled to statutory sick pay, however the normal sick pay rules still applied from the fourth day of absence for all types of illness.
Vaccinations were no longer required as a condition of deployment in Care Quality Commission registered care homes.
What your business should do: Review sick pay policies and revise workplace health and safety risk assessments in the light of changes.
Get in touch
For further advice on employment law, or any legal topics surrounding your business’s compliance issues, get in touch for a chat.