New rules for payslips...
Do you know what they are?

New legislation around providing payslips came into effect in April 2019. We asked Martin Poole from Morrell Middleton, Chartered Certified Accountants on Clifton Moor, to shed some more light on the subject.

Martin said: “From 6 April 2019 new legislation around providing payslips came into effect, under which:

• all employers will be required to provide payslips to all ‘workers’ and
• show hours worked on payslips where the pay varies by the number of hours worked.”

Who is entitled to a payslip?

The statutory right to receive an itemised payslip extended to all workers from 6 April 2019. Previously, only employees were entitled to payslips. The status ‘worker’ is the third category in addition to the traditional definitions of ‘employee’ and ‘self-employed’. The definition of a ‘worker’, as expressed in the Employment Rights Act 1996, s230(3), is an individual who:

“has entered into work under a contract of employment or any other contract, whether express or implied and whether oral or in writing, whereby the individual undertakes to do or perform personally any work or services for another party to the contract whose status is not by virtue of the contract that of a client or custom of any profession or business undertaking carried on by the individual.”

Workers could include:

• casual work,
• agency work,
• freelance work,
• seasonal work,
• zero hours work.

A payslip may be provided in either a physical format or a printable electronic format.

When do I need to show hours on payslips?

You need to show the number of hours on payslips where pay varies by the number of hours worked. The hours can be shown as a single total of hours or can be broken down into separate figures for different types of work or different rates of pay. All these new rights came into force for pay periods which began on or after 6 April.

HMRC has published guidance around this new legislation:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/764576/payslips-legislation-april-2019-additional-info-on-payslips.pdf

Contact Martin at post@morrell-middleton.co.uk or on 01904 691141.

Martin Poole, Associate Director at Morrell Middleton.

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