Pro-Pay - Payroll Services

Welcome to the 2nd edition of our Newsletter. Hopefully you are finding it useful to keep up to date with the various changes in legislation. In this edition, we are highlighting childcare vouchers, students working during the summer vacation and the maternity pay changes which took place at the beginning of this tax year. Please don’t forget that if there is a topic you would like to see covered, then let us know and we will be happy to feature it in our next edition.

Maternity Pay

In April of this year, the Maternity regulations changed significantly. A qualifying employee is now entitled to 26 weeks paid maternity leave with the option to take a further 26 weeks unpaid leave. The rules relating to payment for the first 6 weeks of maternity leave remain essentially unchanged in that employees will be paid at the rate of 90% of average weekly earnings. The remaining 18 weeks are to be paid at the rate of £100 per week or continuing 90% average earnings if below £100.

Employers who paid less than £50,000 in National Insurance Contributions for the year 2002/03 are able to reclaim the total amount of SMP paid out together with compensation of 4.5%. Larger employers (those who paid over £50,000 in National Insurance Contributions 2002/03) may reclaim 92% of SMP paid out.

FUTURE TOPICS

Future topics include:

Staff Profiles
Electronic filing

Childcare Vouchers

Pro-Pay are pleased to announce a joint initiative with Busy Bees Corporate Childcare Vouchers to provide childcare vouchers to all employees of clients within the bureau.

What are childcare vouchers?
Childcare vouchers are a genuine flexible solution for employees who pay for childcare. Childcare vouchers can be used to pay for ALL registered forms of childcare, plus close family members and nannies.

How do childcare vouchers benefit employees?
Staff simply request Childcare vouchers as part of their salary and because Childcare Vouchers can only be used to pay for childcare, they do not attract National Insurance Contributions. Therefore, for every £100 voucher requested, the employee saves £11.00.

Do childcare vouchers benefit employers?
Yes they do, under the same conditions as above, ie for every £100 requested, the employer saves £12.80

If you would like to find out more, please contact us on 01424 734267

Students and Tax

Do Students pay tax?
Do Students pay National Insurance?

How to deal with students working for you raises a lot of questions. In answer to the above, YES and YES. All income is subject to tax and national insurance. Confusion arises out of which tax form a student should complete—P38(S) or P46. The answer again is quite simple. If the student is working during term time ie at weekends and evenings, then they must complete a P46. If the student is working during Summer/Christmas/Easter vacations ONLY then they may complete a P38(S). Hope this clears that one up for you.

This year, instead of Christmas cards, we will be making a donation to a local charity—not everyone agreed but we run a democracy here! So we would therefore like to take this opportunity to wish you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR from all of us at Pro-Pay.

If you are pleased with the service Pro-Pay’s team provides, why not recommend us to your business associates. To show our appreciation for any new business you may introduce to us, we will send you £50 worth of Argos/M&S vouchers.

Staff Changes

We are pleased to welcome Jacky Hilbrig who joined us in August. Jacky recently moved back to Hastings from London where she was responsible for administering the payroll for a group of Nursing Centres around the UK.

Pro-Pay Limited
28 Wilton Road
Bexhill on Sea
East Sussex
TN40 1EZ
Tel: 01424 734267
Fax: 01424 733742
Email: info@pro-pay.co.uk