Businesses missing out on the employment allowance

In April 2014 the government introduced the employment allowance, allowing businesses to offset up to ￡2,000 of their employer’s Class 1 National Insurance costs, subject to eligibility. This was increased to ￡3,000 in April 2016.

This was somewhat of a trade off as the ability to recover any Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) cost was taken away, no matter the level of sickness payments or size of business.

I visit many businesses and undergo reviews/audits of payroll data and it is not uncommon for businesses to still not be aware of this allowance. Within the SME market, it tends to be the business owner or finance manager processing payroll, so they have a number of other areas of responsibility and the main concern is running the business.

This is where the real value of outsourcing payroll to specialists becomes apparent. We constantly monitor the ever changing landscape of payroll and auto enrolment to ensure our clients are well informed and benefit from such allowances.

If you would like us to complete an audit of your payroll data, we can ensure you are making use of these benefits and assist in backdating claims where appropriate, please contact me on [email protected] or 023 8046 1222.

For further information on our payroll service offering, please visit www.hwb-accountants.com/services/payroll/