Statutory Payments
Statutory Payments for tax year 2011-12
The Government has announced the new rates for tax year 2011-12 and they are as follows:
Payment |
Rate |
| Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) | The weekly rate of SSP will increase to £81.60 for payment starting on or after Wednesday 6 April 2011 |
| Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) | The standard weekly rate of SMP will rise to £128.73 for payment weeks starting on or after Sunday, 3 April 2011 |
| Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) | The standard weekly rate of SAP will rise to £128.73 for payment weeks starting on or after Sunday, 3 April 2011 |
| Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) | The standard weekly rate of SPP will rise to £128.73 for payment weeks starting on or after Sunday, 3 April 2011 |
| Additional Statutory Paternity Pay (ASPP) | Applicable to fathers of babies due on or after 3 April 2011 and the standard weekly rate is £128.73 (same as SPP) |
| Lower Earnings Limit | The weekly rate will rise to £102 from Wednesday 6 April 2011 |
| Guarantee Pay | |
| Limit on amount of guarantee payment payable to an employee in respect of any day | £111.00 (5 days in any period of 3 months @ £22.20 per day) |
In addition, there will be a change to the additional payment made to small employers in relation to SMP, OSPP and ASPP and SAP. Currently, employers who qualify for the small employers’ rate of reimbursement can recover 100% of the payments plus an additional amount of 4.5% in compensation for the employers’ share of National Insurance Contributions (NICs) due on the payments. From 6 April 2011, the additional amount will reduce to 3%, meaning employers will be able to claim back a total of 103% of the SMP, OSPP, ASPP and SAP they pay out.
A small employer is an employer who has paid total gross Class 1 NICs below an annual threshold in a qualifying tax year. For the 2011/12 tax year, the annual threshold remains at £45,000 or less.
The additional amount is calculated using a formula based on the employers’ share of NICs paid and is reviewed each year to see if it needs to be adjusted to reflect the shift in the ratio of SMP, OSPP, ASPP and SAP paid out and the employers’ NICs paid on these payments. As the employers’ NICs threshold for the 2011/12 tax year is rising from £110 to £136 per week, this means that from 6 April 2011, NICs are not payable on the £128.73 weekly standard rate of any relevant statutory payment, so employers will be paying less NICs on statutory payments. The change in the additional amount from 4.5% to 3% reflects this reduction in employers’ NIC payments.
Employers who do not qualify for the small employers’ rate can still recover 92% of the SMP, OSPP, ASPP and SAP paid to their employees.
National Minimum Wage
| Age | October 2010 Rates | October 2011 Rates | ||
| Apprenctices | £2.50 per hour | £2.60 per hour | ||
| 16 – 17 | £3.64 per hour | £3.68 per hour | ||
| 18 – 20 | £4.92 per hour | £4.98 per hour | ||
| 21+ | £5.93 per hour | £6.08 per hour |
