Joshua Leigh & Co

Are you prepared for payroll changes this April?

Employers have been urged to prepare for changes to automatic enrolment, the minimum wage, and taxes this April.

It comes after HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) announced an “unusually large number” of payroll-related changes, some of which were only announced this month.

Here’s what employers need to know.

Automatic enrolment

• The automatic enrolment (AE) qualifying earnings band (QEB) lower limit will diverge in 2022/23 from the National Insurance Contributions (NIC) lower earnings limit, which is set to increase to £6,396
• The NIC upper earnings limit (UEL) will be frozen at £50,270 in 2022/23, so the AE upper limit of the QEB and NIC UEL will continue to align
• The automatic enrolment earnings trigger will remain at £10,000
• The lower limit of the qualifying earnings band will remain at £6,240
• The upper limit of the qualifying earnings band will remain at £50,270.

National Minimum Wage

The National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) will increase on 01 April 2022. The new rates can be found here.

Student loans

The student and postgraduate loans thresholds and rates are as follows:

• Plan 1 ― £20,195
• Plan 2 ― £27,295
• Plan 4 ― £25,375
• Postgraduate loan ― £21,000

National Insurance Contributions

In September 2021, the Government announced a new 1.25 per cent Health and Social Care Levy to fund investment in the NHS, health and social care.

The Levy will be introduced from April 2022 when National Insurance Contributions (NICs) for working age employees, self-employed people and employers will increase by 1.25 percentage points.

“Last minute changes”

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) urged businesses to prepare for the changes in the little time they have.

“At the end of January and beginning of February, the Government made an unusually large number of payroll-related announcements.

“Leaving such announcements to the last minute has left little time for software developers to update payroll IT, test and launch in time to run April payrolls.”

Get advice today

Not every payroll change happening in April has been listed in this blog. For help and advice on the changes that matter to you, please get in touch with our team today.

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