With April being the start of the new financial year this is usually when changes to employment law, especially those that effect financials come into place. As such here are some of the changes that are coming in April 2022.
Increase to National Minimum Wage (1st April)
National Living Wage – New Rate – £9.50 (Currently £8.91)
21-22 Year Old Rate – New Rate – £9.18 (Currently £8.36)
18-20 Year Old Rate – New Rate – £6.83 (Currently £6.56)
16-17 Year Old Rate – New Rate – £4.81 (Currently £4.62)
Apprentice Rate – New Rate – £4.81 (Currently £4.30)
Accommodation Offset – New Rate – £8.70 (Currently £8.36)
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rates-and-thresholds-for-employers-2022-to-2023
Increase to family friendly leave rates (3rd April)
Family friendly leave pay will increase per week subject to entitlement.
Statutory Maternity Pay – New Rate – £156.66 (Currently £151.97)
Statutory Paternity Pay – New Rate – £156.66 (Currently £151.97)
Statutory Adoption Pay – New Rate – £156.66 (Currently £151.97)
Statutory Shared Parental Leave Pay – New Rate – £156.66 (Currently £151.97)
Increase to statutory sick pay (expected 6th April)
Statutory sick pay will increase per week subject to entitlement.
Statutory Sick Pay – New Rate – £99.35 (Currently £96.35)
Increase to compensation limits (6th April)
Compensation limits have increased subject to conditions.
Maximum guarantee payments (daily): New Rate – £31.00 (Currently £30.00)
Maximum week’s pay for calculating redundancy and unfair dismissal basic award: New Rate – £571.00 (Currently £544.00)
Maximum basic award for unfair dismissal and statutory redundancy payment: New Rate – £17,130.00 (Currently £16,320.00)
Minimum basic award for dismissal on trade union, health and safety, occupational pension scheme trustee, employee representative and on working time grounds only: New Rate – £6,959.00 (Currently £6,634.00)
Maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal (unlimited for certain automatically unfair dismissals, for example, health and safety or whistleblowing): New Rate – £93,878.00 (Currently £89,493.00)
Minimum compensation for employees excluded/expelled from trade union: New Rate – £10,628.00 (Currently £10,132.00
Failure to allow right to be accompanied correctly: New Rate – £1,142.00 (Currently £1,088.00)
Failure to give written statement of particulars: New Rate – £2,284.00 (Currently £2,176.00)
Flexible working regulations: New Rate – £4,568.00 (Currently £4,352.00)
For more information, see The Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2022
https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/emp-law/about/statutory-rates
Revision of the Vento bands (6th April)
Personal injury compensation limits for calculating injury to feelings and psychiatric injury have increased and are now:
Lower band £990.00-£9,900.00 (less serious cases)
Middle band £9,900.00-£29,600.00 (cases not meriting an upper band award)
Upper band £29,600.00-£49,300.00 (the most serious cases)
Exceptionally serious cases could exceed the £49,300.00
For more information, see https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Vento-bands-presidential-guidance-April-2022-addendum.pdf
Right to Work checks (6th April)
When hiring people with a biometric residence permit, a biometric residence card or a frontier work permit, manual right to work checks will no longer provide employers with a ‘statutory excuse’. Instead, there will be a need to conduct free online right to work checks.
“The government has announced that, from 6th April certified identity service providers (IDSPs) will be able to use Identification Document Validation Technology (IDVT) to conduct right to work checks and right to rent checks on behalf of British and Irish citizens.” https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-digital-identity-checking-for-landlords-and-employers-to-tackle-immigration-abuse
This will be a separate optional online right to work check for British and Irish citizens with a valid passport. There will be a charge to employers for using this system however individuals will be able to remotely verify their right to work by uploading an image of the passport. This is optional and for British and Irish citizens it is still ok to do manual right to work checks.
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