New government data has shown that almost a million employers are benefiting from a £2,000 cut in their annual national insurance contributions (NICs) bill. Figures released on 31 July revealed that 725,000 UK business and charity employers have claimed the Employment Allowance. HM Revenue & Customs says that more than half of all eligible businesses… Read more…

Employers are reminded that new national minimum wage (NMW) rates will take effect from 1 October 2014, benefiting more than one million lower paid workers. The increase in the main NMW rate to £6.50 per hour means that someone paid that rate and working a 36-hour week would receive £355 more in their pay packet… Read more…

Business Secretary Vince Cable has urged businesses, unions and individuals to help identify and close potential loopholes in plans to ban the use of exclusivity clauses in zero hours contracts. The government wants to find out whether some employers might try to get round the ban by offering contracts that could, for example, guarantee just… Read more…

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has issued guidance on how redress payments made to businesses that have been mis-sold interest rate hedging products should be accounted for on tax returns. The complex products, including swaps, caps and collars, were typically sold by banks to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) alongside business loans as a way… Read more…

The number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) supported through the government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF) has trebled over the past year, new figures show. According to an annual monitoring report published on 22 July, 5,100 businesses received RGF support in the year 2013 to 2014 while the number of direct jobs created or safeguarded… Read more…

A leading accountancy body has issued top tips for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners to help make sure that their businesses do not suffer financially while they and their staff are on holiday. Issuing the guidance on 15 July, Clive Lewis, head of enterprise at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales… Read more…

All the UK’s largest businesses have now passed their staging dates for automatically enrolling eligible workers into qualifying workplace pension schemes. Announcing the landmark on 17 July, the Pensions Regulator, which regulates workplace pensions, said 99 per cent of the employers had met their legal duties without it needing to use its statutory powers. Thousands… Read more…

The government has named the company it has chosen to deliver a new service, designed to help employees and employers better manage sickness absence and reduce the costs involved. Minister for Welfare Reform Lord Freud said on 25 July that the Health and Work Service would be delivered by Health Management Limited, the UK’s leading… Read more…

A list of tax avoidance schemes whose users may be required to make an upfront payment of tax has been published by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). The Finance Bill, which is due to receive Royal Assent later this month, will give HMRC a new power called accelerated payments. This will mean users of schemes… Read more…

British businesses must realise the potential of older employees and help people to carry on working, Pensions Minister Steve Webb has said. He was speaking on 13 June at the launch of a new government action plan, which says that the economy could have been boosted by £18 billion in 2013 if the employment gap… Read more…