Health & Social Care levy tax increase is first time employers are being asked to communicate Government mandated pay changes to workers

Customers of the PayDashboard platform, a leading provider of digital payslips and pay guidance, will today be able to access a new calculator designed to support employees to understand the new Health & Social Care Levy (HSCL) and how it will impact them.

Employers looking for support in communicating changes to employees

The latest workplace tax will take effect from 6 April 2022, seeing a 1.25% increase in National Insurance Contributions (NICs) for employees and for employers. In addition, HMRC have requested employers to include a message on payslips from April 2022 to explain this to employees. This is the first ever time bosses in the UK are being asked to communicate tax changes to their employees directly and it will be essential that they are proactively engaging their workforce to help them understand the financial impact on their final pay.

Paul Gibbons MCIPPdip, COO at PayDashboard, commented: “The Government has provided a short statement for employers to include on payslips from April 2022 to address the new tax, however we believe this level of communication is not enough and will come too late for many employees who will be caught out when their take-home pay unexpectedly goes down. Our new calculator has been designed to help employers offer their staff absolute transparency on how much they can expect to see deducted on their payslip each week or month from April – allowing employees more time to understand and prepare for the changes.”

Alongside the calculator, PayDashboard has also created simple guides to the Health & Social Care levy, to help employees to understand what it is, and to assist their employers  to identify ways they can adapt their current operations to mitigate the financial impact of the increased contributions, both on their business and on their employees. This includes information on: early terminations, national insurance exemptions, salary sacrifice schemes, share incentive plans, the employment allowance and statutory payments.

5% uplift in NICs funds NHS, health & social care’.