Redundancy Pay

No one likes making staff redundant, but sometimes needs must and when the time comes there is a formal legal process which all employers must follow otherwise the dismissal is automatically unfair. A series of letters must be sent and meetings must be held, even when it is just one employee being made redundant.

As part of this process, there are two primary payments which need to be made to the employee – Notice pay (although the employee can be asked to work their notice) and Redundancy pay.

Redundancy pay is one of the only areas of employment in which age must be taken into consideration as the amount of money an employee is paid is based on their age and their length of service. Each year the Government provides us with a statutory minimum which, providing actual weekly pay is higher than this amount, must be paid for each week of redundancy pay due. This rate increases from 1st April from £475 per week to £479 per week. Not a massive increase I know, but you do need to ensure accurate pay calculations.

 

National Living Wage

The New National Living Wage is coming into effect for employees over the age of 25 on 1^st April. All other rates will remain unchanged, but it is essential that you check that you are paying your staff the new rates. There is a download available here for all the annual salaries based on hours worked per week and age. You also need to ensure that you are paying at these levels for holiday and bank holiday entitlements. These need to be properly pro rated for part time employees. If in doubt, give us a call.

Childcare Vouchers

In a recent Employment Appeals Tribunal Case, it was determined that Childcare Vouchers can be stopped during maternity leave. Up until now they have been considered to be a benefit, but as a result of this case they are considered to be pay and therefore can be stopped while an employee is not earning their salary.