There have been some positive changes to Paternity Leave and Pay in the UK offering more flexibility for fathers and partners.

The changes will allow parents to split leave, there are reduced notice requirements and also support for early births.

Employers will have transitional guidance and can claim repayment for leave taken before April 6th 2024, when the new law came into effect.

These changes will help to promote a better work-life balance and create a more supportive workplace culture for all.

If you have any queries, please do reach out to the team here at GLX, who will be happy to help.

This month, millions of workers will take home more pay due to a reduction in the national insurance rate.

As announced by the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, in November 2023, the main National Insurance rate for employees was reduced from 12% to 10% on 6 January 2024.

As an example:

On a salary of £30,000 an employee’s NIC per month was £174.30 at the original 12%, however from 6th January 2024 the new amount of £145.25 will be payable, saving £29.05 per month or £348.60 per year.

The self-employed will receive their reductions from April 2024 and we’ll be sharing more detail on this nearer the time. 

In the meantime, you can read the full details on the Government website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-national-insurance-contributions-from-6-january-2024/a-reduction-in-the-main-rates-of-primary-class-1-and-class-4-national-insurance-contributions-and-the-removal-of-the-requirement-to-pay-class-2-nation

HMRC’s Working Time Regulations were introduced on 1st January 2024, and as promised, the GLX payroll team are pleased to share these details with you.

The main aim of these changes is to simplify holiday entitlement and holiday pay calculations.

They will be particularly relevant for companies with zero/variable hour employees or part-year workers, such as term-time only workers.

It’s important to note that the reinstated 12.07% holiday calculation (based on 28 days of holiday) and rolled-up holiday calculations can only be used for holiday years that start after 1st April 2024. 

If your holiday year began on 1st January 2024, you’ll need to wait until January 2025 to implement and continue using your current method.

For full information, you can visit the following link: 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/simplifying-holiday-entitlement-and-holiday-pay-calculations/holiday-pay-and-entitlement-reforms-from-1-january-2024


If you would like to discuss this further, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

The Government is proposing to introduce an accrual method to calculate entitlement at 12.07% of hours worked in a pay period for irregular-hour workers and part-year workers in the first year of employment and beyond.

Regular-hours workers, who know their hours, will continue to accrue annual leave in their first year of employment as they do now.

In addition, employers may be permitted to calculate holiday pay for irregular-hours workers and part-year workers using the old method of ‘Rolled Up Holiday Pay’ (RHP) which had previously been deemed as unlawful.

Workers will not be able to request that they receive RHP, it will be the employer’s choice and if used they will be required to calculate a worker’s holiday pay as 12.07% of the worker’s total earnings within a pay period. The employer will be required to pay the worker with each payslip, rather than when the leave is taken and the Government expects employers to clearly mark RHP payments as separate items on each payslip.

These proposals will affect companies whose new holiday year entitlement starts from 1st April 2024 onwards and GLX will be following the progress of these proposals.

You can read more about the proposed changes on the link below and for further information please don’t hesitate to get in contact with the payroll team at GLX to discuss how these changes may affect you and your business.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/654b64d0b9068c000d0e7546/retained_eu_law_explanatory_memorandum_the_employment_rights_regulations_2023.pdf