UPDATE FOR EMPLOYERS OF NANNIES AND DOMESTIC WORKERS – JANUARY 2014
January 17th, 2014
CHANGES IN RATES FOR 2014-2015
From 6 April 2014:
• Anyone employing a nanny will have to register as an employer if they are paying over £111 a week.
• The personal allowance is going up to £10,000 meaning that if your nanny is on a gross salary she will receive an extra £560 a year with no further cost to you.
• The NIC threshold has increased to £153 meaning an employer will only start paying national insurance if their nanny earns above £153 a week.
CHANGES TO SMP AND SSP
Statutory Maternity Pay is increasing from £136.78 per week to £138.18. The first 6 weeks of statutory maternity leave will be paid at 90% of average weekly earnings for the previous two months, whilst the following 33 weeks will be paid at the lower of 90% of weekly earnings or SMP. Please note that under the Small Employer’s Relief scheme, if your nanny is entitled to SMP according to statutory regulations, then you will be entitled to recover 100% of any SMP paid plus 3% NI compensation. Most domestic employers will fall into this category.
Statutory Sick Pay is increasing from £86.70 to £87.55 per week and will be payable where an employee who earns at least £111 per week is absent for at least 4 consecutive working days. However from April 2014, employers will not be able to reclaim SSP from HMRC. This means that any statutory sick pay is now the employer’s responsibility.
If an employee has another period of sickness absence within 8 weeks of the previous absence, SSP is usually payable from the 1st day of sickness rather than the 4th, provided that the employee has been sick for at least 4 consecutive working days.
EMPLOYER’S NATIONAL INSURANCE
Many of you will have heard that from April 2014, all businesses would be exempt from the first £2,000 of Employer NI contributions each year. Unfortunately this exemption, included within the National Insurance Contributions Bill specifically excludes employers of nannies and other domestic staff from claiming this benefit.