EMPLOYMENT LAW - 29.03.2021

Employment changes in April 2021

A range of changes come into force in early April 2021. What are they?

From 1 April 2021, the national living wage (NLW) will increase to £8.91 per hour and the age at which workers become entitled to it will reduce from age 25 to age 23. In addition, the national minimum wage (NMW) rate for workers aged 21 and 22 will rise to £8.36 per hour, the NMW rate for workers aged 18 to 20 will rise to £6.56 per hour, the NMW rate for workers aged 16 and 17 will rise to £4.62 per hour, the NMW apprentice rate will rise to £4.30 per hour and the accommodation offset will increase to £8.36 per day. Finally, the time period for which employers must keep NLW/NMW records will increase from three to six years.

From 4 April 2021, the standard weekly rates of statutory maternity, adoption, paternity, parental bereavement and shared parental pay will increase to £151.97.

From 6 April 2021:

  • the weekly statutory sick pay rate will increase to £96.35
  • the maximum amount of a “week’s pay” (used to calculate statutory redundancy payments and various awards including the unfair dismissal basic award) will increase to £544 and the limit on the unfair dismissal compensatory award will rise to £89,493
  • after a twelve-month delay, the off-payroll working (IR35) rules will be extended to large and medium-sized employers in the private sector
  • changes are being made to the formula for calculating post-employment notice pay (PENP) to provide an alternative PENP calculation where an employee’s pay period is defined in months, but their contractual notice period or post-employment notice period isn’t a whole number of months.

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