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April 2022 changes

by | Apr 3, 2022 | Uncategorised | 0 comments

Just a reminder of the things that are changing in April 2022:

Changes to National Minimum Wage

From 1 April 2022, the following changes take effect for those:

  • Aged 23 and over the NLW increases from £8.91 to £9.50 per hour
  • Aged 21 to 22 the NMW increases from £8.36 to £9.18 per hour
  • Aged 18 to 20 the NMW increases from £6.56 to £6.83 per hour
  • Aged 16-17 the NMW increases from £4.62 to £4.81 per hour
  • Apprentice rate increases from £4.30 to £4.81 per hour (for those under the age of 19 or who are 19 and in their first year of an apprenticeship)

Ensure that you have implemented these for workers and written to them to confirm the increase.  Also ensure you increase the rate when there is an increase in age and that if you make any deductions for uniform that this doesn’t bring them below National Minimum Wage.

Changes to other statutory rates of pay:

From 3 April 2022, the weekly rates for statutory maternity, adoption, shared parental leave and paternity leave will increase from £151.97 to £156.66 per week.

From 6 April 2022, the weekly rate for statutory sick pay increases from £96.35 to £99.35 per week.

The lower earnings limit for eligibility for these payments increases from £120 to £123 per week.

Ensure you are using these new rates.

Changes to compensation rates for unfair dismissal and redundancy payments

The new rates apply where an employee’s termination date is on or after 6 April 2022.

A limit on a week’s pay for statutory redundancy payments will increase from £544 to £571 per week so please ensure you use this figure for any redundancy calculations.  This amount will also be used to work out the basic award for unfair dismissal claims.

The maximum compensatory award for an ordinary unfair dismissal claim will increase from £89,493 to £93,978 (this is capped at 52 weeks gross pay where this amount is lower than the maximum compensatory amount).

Duty to provide suitable PPE to workers

From 6 April 2022 new regulations come into force which extend the duty on employers to provide suitable personal protective equipment (PPE) to all workers, not just employees where there is a health and safety risk to the worker in the work they carry out for their employer.  Employers will also be prohibited from charging workers for any PPE supplied.  You will need to bear this in mind for any workers who are on casual or zero-hour contracts.