No more Statutory Sick Pay reclaims – Abolition of Percentage Threshold Scheme
The Government has ended the Percentage Threshold Scheme (PTS) under which employers who suffered from high levels of sickness absence were able to reclaim a portion of their SSP payments. Using the money saved from PTS, which has been described by the DWP as “an outdated system which does nothing to promote or support active management of sickness absences by either the employer or employee”, the Government plans to set up a new Health and Work Service – expected to be set up by the end of the year – which will offer advice, voluntary medical assessments and treatment plans for employees who are off sick. The Government has estimated that the existing arrangements cost £50m per annum and that the new service will cost between £25m to £50m per annum.
Taxable revenues are anticipated to increase by £100m to £215m.
What’s the cost to employers?
A recent survey by MetLife found that one in five SMEs suffers “serious disruption” as a result of staff illness, with employee absence costs taking up around 13% of payroll on average. Although the DWP argues that the “financial loss to business from the ending of the PTS will more than likely be offset by a reduction in lost working days, earlier return to work and increased economic output” some commentators are not reassured. David Heaton of accountants Baker Tilly fears that the inability to reclaim SSP will prove a “huge burden for a small business to bear” and could even result in some small businesses having to close. Meanwhile, speaking in the House of Lords, Baroness Sherlock noted that micro-employers could be particularly heavily hit by the changes.
Will the Health and Work Service work?
According to a leading independent occupational health adviser, there are not enough occupational health therapists to meet the timescale of the Health and Work Service and that proposed phone assessments could end up being “templated rubbish.” So it remains to be seen if the abolition of PTS will simply amount to a further challenge for SMEs without any effective replacement. What do you think – how will the changes affect your business?
It’s that time of year again and April heralds some new changes to Employment law.
Claimants wishing to bring an employment claim will first have to lodge one with ACAS and engage in conciliation before they can proceed to a tribunal, the rationale being that an agreement can be reached between the parties and litigation can be avoided.
Employers will need to exercise greater caution regarding any potential breaches of employment law as the presence of any “aggravating features” exacerbating the breach will land employers with a financial penalty of 50% of the claimant’s award. This penalty will be between £100 and £5,000 but can be reduced if paid within 21 days. Additionally, the compensatory award for unfair dismissal will increases from £74,200 to £76,574 with the weekly pay consideration rising to £464.
The statutory rates have risen again as usual with maternity, ordinary and additional statutory paternity and adoption pay increasing from £136.78 to £138.18. Statutory sick pay has also risen to £86.70.
Employers now have six weeks instead of a month to enrol jobholders into a qualifying pension scheme and the ability for an employee to obtain information from their employer about discrimination has been abolished.
If you work in the catering or restaurant business it is vital that you get the correct documentation together beforehand. Ensuring your team is up to date on current practices and being able to prove this to anyone who asks is vitally important. Collecting this paperwork and keeping it safe is a great resource for your business and something you can refer back to when employing new recruits. We’ve given you a list of our top documents to download in relation to Food Hygiene and listed some of the reasons as to why they can benefit you.
Food Hygiene Documents
To implement good food hygiene practice it is important that you keep records of food hygiene guidance notes, temperature logs, cleaning and pest control records. These are just some of the documents available from us that will reduce risk in your workplace. Finding yourself on the wrong side of food hygiene regulations and laws can incur hefty fines, penalties and face closure. The biggest issues lie with the manager of the business as, if they are successfully prosecuted, they can be banned from running another food establishment or even face a prison sentence. As you can see, having this paperwork in order is of high importance to ensure the best possible standards are met and adhered to. To ensure good practice is met you can download this documentation for just £35+VAT.
Kitchen Risk Assessment Forms
Risk assessment is part of everyday life; we constantly assess a situation to figure out the risk or threat to us. Kitchen Risk assessment forms are used by businesses in the food industry to assess the safety of their workplace for its staff and employers. These forms can be downloaded to prevent accidents and make sure the business is in compliance with the relevant health and safety legislation. These documents are also a preventative measure; it’s an ongoing way to prevent loss, damage and injury in the kitchen.
Hygiene Hazard Analysis Forms (HHACR)
HHACR forms are relevant and helpful documents that allow you to manage and eliminate any food hygiene risks. These documents are relevant for the preparation of salads, smoothies, juices as well as hot and chilled food. Implementing a catering risk assessment and action plan, for example, is a great way to keep track of hygiene hazards in the kitchen. These documents give you the opportunity to successfully overview how you run your kitchen as well as how you as a company deal with hygiene hazards.
All of these helpful documents are available to you from Simply Docs at competitive prices. Make your job easier and download all the information you need here.
As always at Simply-Docs we’ll be continuing to frequently add and refresh the documents we have available on the website. We understand that we can always be doing more so we’ll be remodelling the corporate and business folders to ensure that you get the most from them.
This year, we also would like to hear more from you. We recognise that we may not always have the documents you are seeking available on the website. However, we’d like you to let us know what documents you feel could be added to the Simply-Docs website so we can make reasonable endeavours to make them happen for you.
If you have any document suggestions, we would love to hear from you. We want 2014 to be the year where our document expansion is bigger than ever.
We have already created new documents for Business Continuity, a Dress and Appearance Policy and Sponsorship Agreements amongst others as a result of requests we have received in the past.
So if you have any ideas you would like to share with us, let us know and leave your suggestions below.
