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Autumn Budget Update

Embrace HR Aylesbury Autumn Budget 2018

Key points for HR professionals to consider…

The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, revealed his Budget 2018 on Monday 29 October – promising it would be a Budget for ‘the strivers, the grafters and carers’.

What are the key points for HR?

Mental health care

Increased spending for health care services should be a boost for employers, with many becoming more aware of the importance of managing staff who are suffering with mental ill health.

If you are looking at your internal processes to ensure support is in place within the workplace, and that external services are accessible for employees, the announcement of a 24-hour mental health crisis hotline will be a great tool.

Minimum Wage increases

Increases to the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) will be introduced in April 2019. A reduction in business rates in the Budget should help to balance this out in your own budgets.

The changes are as follows:

  • National Living Wage for employees aged 25+ – from £7.83 to £8.21 an hour
  • National Minimum Wage rates:
    • employees aged 21-24 – from £7.38 to £7.70 an hour
    • employees aged 18-20 – from £5.90 to £6.15 an hour
    • employees aged 16-17 – from £4.20 to £4.35 an hour

Apprenticeships

The amount non-levy paying employers have to pay apprentices has been halved. At present, employers pay 10 per cent with the government paying the remaining 90%. This will drop to 5% in April 2019. The apprentice rate is rising from £3.70 to £3.90 an hour.

Self-employment

The IR35 rules are set to be extended to the private sector. These rules make employers responsible for assessing whether workers who are engaged through intermediaries, usually on a self-employed basis, should be taxed as if they were an employee. This change is set to come in in April 2020 – it will only affect to large and medium-sized organisations.

What didn’t happen?

There were rumours that there would be cuts to pension allowances or other moves to reform tax relief but that didn’t happen in this Budget.

If you would like to discuss this subject further and how it may affect your business, please contact Cecily Lalloo at Embrace HR Limited.

T: 01296 761 288 or contact us here.

Based in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, Embrace HR Limited supports business owners who do not have their own HR department or those that do but need help from time to time. We also work across the Home Counties of Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and also SMEs based in London.