Salary Sacrifice Changes – 6th April 2017

What is salary sacrifice? Many employers give staff the option to swap a part of their wage in return for a non-cash benefit. As a result of having a lower salary, employees pay less income tax and make lower National Insurance contributions. Likewise, employers save on National Insurance as this is linked to salary. Why […]

Auto Enrolment Contribution Phasing Dates

The new regulations, that confirmed the change of dates from which the auto enrolment minimum contribution increases need to occur, have now been passed by Parliament. The minimum required contributions and effective dates are detailed below: Phasing dates Qualifying Earnings Basis Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 Staging Date – 5th April 2018 2% (of which 1% employer) […]

Auto Re-Enrolment: The Basics

What is it? Automatic re-enrolment occurs every 3 years and repeats the duties you carried out on your Staging Date. You must ensure all your eligible staff who are not active members of a Qualifying Workplace Pension Scheme (QWPS) with at least the minimum levels of contributions are re-enrolled back into your scheme.  What you […]

Trust Based Pension Schemes & the Chair’s Statement

We have received an increasing number of questions regarding the Chair’s statement for trust based Occupational Pension Scheme. Below are brief answers to some of those initial questions. It is not designed as an exhaustive briefing document and for further detailed information and specific advice please contact us on 01883 332260. Who has to comply? Trustees of Trust […]

Impact of the changes to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

The Government has announced with effect from 6th April 2017 that they are reducing the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). ESA is paid to individuals by the state if they are unable to work due to illness or injury after they have been absent for 28 weeks. There are currently three levels of benefit, paid […]

Registered Group Life Schemes v Excepted Group Life Policies

In recent years Excepted Group Life Policies have become more popular and as such the following may be useful in order to provide a basic comparison between these and the traditional Registered Group Life schemes. It is not meant to be exhaustive and is based on our current understanding of legislation which can change without notice.  It is […]

Employee Benefit Survey

Below are some of the results of a recent independent employee benefit survey of over 300 employers which we thought may be of interest to you. Many of the answers highlight the value of an effective online benefit & communication platform, something we can provide via our Wingate PlusYou product. Wingate PlusYou is a straightforward, effective and surprising low cost online […]

Our new IMMEDIATE Key Person Cover Facility

Our unique Key Person facility means you can obtain Life Insurance for the key people within your business WITHOUT THE NEED FOR MEDICAL UNDERWRITING or any declaration of hazardous activities.  This facility is designed to avoid key persons spending time completing detailed forms and attending medicals when they would prefer to be focusing on the business Provided […]

Insurance Premium Tax……Time to act?

In a move that could increase the Treasury’s annual revenue by up to £1.75 billion, the Chancellor announced in the Summer Budget that the standard rate of UK Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) will increase from 6% to 9.5% from 1st November 2015. IPT is a tax on general insurance premiums and there are two rates: […]

NEW 2024 Employee Benefit Benchmarking Report

Exclusively focused on UK organisations with employee headcounts of up to 1000, the data and conclusions shared in this report are directly relevant to companies of this size and profile.