From April 2019 HMRC require employers to include additional information on payslips
New legislation in force from April 2019 will require all employers to (a) provide payslips to all workers, and (b) show hours on payslips where the pay varies by the amount of time worked.
This guidance from HMRC is to help employers, workers and their advisers understand the new legislation. The legislation has yet to be interpreted by the courts or tribunals, and this guidance has no legal effect on its interpretation. This guidance is of a general nature and does not and cannot provide definitive answers to individual queries. It is not intended to be relied upon in any specific context or a substitute for seeking advice on your specific circumstances, as each case may be different. If you are unsure please contact us and we can help you with your payslips and payroll.
Workers entitled to payslips from April 2019
From 6 April 2019, the statutory right to receive an itemised payslip will be extended to all workers. This right currently only applies to employees, a sub-category of workers. Guidance on whether a person is a worker can be found at:
www.gov.uk/employment-status/worker
The new right applies to payslips covering pay periods which begin on or after 6 April 2019.
There are some limited exclusions from the right to receive a payslip, such as for members of the armed forces or merchant seamen and women.
Showing hours on payslips where pay varies by time worked From April 2019 additional information must be shown on a payslip for workers whose pay varies depending on the number of hours they have worked.
Where this applies, the number of hours paid for on this basis (ie on the amount of time worked) must be shown. Any other hours do not need to be shown (although of course they can be shown if it would be helpful to do so). For example, where a worker has a fixed salary
each month, and works variable overtime with additional pay at an hourly rate, only the hours of overtime need to be shown.
The hours can be shown either as a single total of all such hours in the pay period, or they can be broken down into separate figures for different types of work or different rates of pay. It should be clear which pay period they were worked in. They only need to be shown for pay periods which begin on or after 6 April 2019.
The hours that must be shown on a payslip are a separate matter from the number of hours worked for National Minimum Wage (NMW) purposes (although for workers who are paid by the hour they may well in practice be the same). A payslip may be provided in either a physical format or an electronic format that the worker can print.
For further guidance on payslips please see: https://www.gov.uk/payslips.
Variations caused by unpaid leave or statutory sick pay If a worker’s pay does not vary by time worked (for example because they are paid a fixed salary each month) there is no need to include an hourly figure to account for variations in pay caused by taking unpaid leave or being on statutory sick pay. Such cases do not amount to pay varying depending on the amount of time worked, but rather to pay varying because of a departure from the normal working and pay arrangements, caused by the unpaid leave or statutory sick pay. However, if a worker is paid according to the amount of time worked and takes unpaid leave or receives statutory sick pay any hours they did work will still need to be included on their payslip.
Enforcement
A worker who thinks that they have not received a payslip, or that the payslip they have received lacks the required information, may bring a claim before an Employment Tribunal. If the tribunal agrees, it must make a declaration to this effect, which it may publish on its website. The tribunal may also order repayment of unnotified deductions made in the 13 weeks preceding the presentation of the claim, even where the employer was otherwise entitled to make the deductions.
This is separate from a claim that a worker has not been paid properly, such as a claim for unlawful deduction of wages, where other remedies are available.
Need more help? Contact our BFMS Payroll team for more info.