As usual, statutory payments will increase at the beginning of April. I have set out the new rates below.
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP): This will increase to £99.35 per week, up from £96.35.
Please note that if you employ zero hours contractors or casual staff they are entitled to SSP if they have earned an average of £123 per week over the previous 8 weeks. Some folk that that zero hours contractors do not get SSP – not true! Self employed staff are, of course, not entitled to SSP.
Don’t forget that Covid related absences attract SSP from Day 1 of the absence and not Day 4 as with other absences. Also the Covid related SSP rebate scheme closes on 24th March and only applies to absences prior to 17th March.
Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Paternity & Adoption Pay: This will rise to £156.66 per week or 90% of earnings if that is less than SMP.
The first 6 weeks of maternity leave is paid at 90% of earnings. Then for 33 weeks £156.66 per week or 90% of average weekly earnings if less than £156.66. The final 13 weeks of maternity leave is unpaid.
If your employee has a flexible salary, perhaps based on commission or varying shifts, then the calculation is based on earnings over the 8 weeks prior to the ‘qualifying week’ which is 15 weeks before the expected date of birth.
Please remember that all employment benefits remains in place throughout the 52 weeks of maternity leave. So, annual leave continues to accrue and if your employee has a company car or laptop etc those benefits remain available to the employee throughout maternity leave.
Statutory Weeks’ Pay: This is the figure used to calculate redundancy. That will rise to £571 for each completed year of service. That figure is up from £544 as it was for 2021/2022.
National Minimum Wage:
Aged 22 and over £9.50 per hour (up from £8.91)
Aged 21-22 £9.18 (up from £8.36)
Aged 18-20 £6.83 (up from £6.56)
Aged 16-18 £4.81 (up from £4.62)
Apprentices £4.81 (up from £4.30)
Please take care with your calculations. If you anticipate your staff working beyond their contractual hours without overtime payments you need to divide their pay by the hours they have worked in order to calculate the hourly rate – or you need to provide time off in lieu (TOIL). Effectively TOIL is additional paid annual leave so you are still paying the employee for the extra hours worked. It is a criminal offence not to pay the national minimum wage.
Maximum Compensation at Employment Tribunal: The maximum amount of compensation that can be awarded by an Employment Tribunal for unfair dismissal will rise to £93,878 (up from £89,493)
Please note there is no maximum award for successful discrimination claims.
Mileage Allowance remains at 45p per mile. If you pay more than 45p per mile the difference becomes a benefit and is taxable. With the rising price of fuel I anticipate the 45p per mile will be reconsidered in the coming months.
Need help? Please give me a call on 07766167160 or email brenda.davidroper@btinternet.com