HMRC have issued the following communication to UK employers to assist informing employees of the reason for the increase in National Insurance contributions that apply from 6th April 2022.
Dear PAYadvice,
We would appreciate your assistance to help… employees understand that the increased National Insurance contribution of 1.25 percentage points from 6 April 2022 is helping fund the NHS, health and social care.
We are therefore requesting that employers include a message for affected employees on all payslips between 6 April 2022 and 5 April 2023, explaining the increased National Insurance contribution.
The message should read; “1.25% uplift in NICs funds NHS, health & social care.”
If you require any further information please go to,Prepare for the Health and Social Care Levy.
We have also been in contact with payroll software providers to request that they include this messaging in their software and wider support models, but we realise some employers will need to make the change directly.
You may have already seen this request in our December 2021 and February 2022 employer bulletins, but we also wanted to [contact] you directly.
As background to this request, on 7th September 2021 the government announced a new 1.25% Health and Social Care Levy to fund investment in the NHS, health and social care.
The Levy is effectively introduced from April 2022 when National Insurance contributions for employees under State Pension age, self-employed people and employers will increase by 1.25 percentage points and be added to the existing NHS funding allocation.
From April 2023, the Levy will be formally separated from National Insurance contributions and will also apply to the earnings of individuals working above State Pension age.
National Insurance contribution rates will then return to 2021 to 2022 levels and receipts from the Levy will go directly for spending on health and social care.
Thank you for your co-operation
HMRC
Opinion
Social Media reflects a mixed view of the governments request to place a message for the 2022/2023 tax year on payslips. Whether viewed as a political message, or a message that does not in reality apply across the whole of the United Kingdom, there is no legal basis for the application and compliance with the request is voluntary.
The software developer community has been researched on the various options for payslip messaging. Many will offer facilities for employers to convey messaging to employees, whereas as other will have no such capability as standard. Many employers now offer online pay statement access where messaging may have limited relevance.
Employers may convey other means of communication to let employees know that their NIC contributions are potentially increasing by over 10%.
Where some solutions will apply without choice, others may require employer application.
Will you be issuing the requested voluntary payslip message on the Health and Social Care Levy?
PAYadvice.UK 28/2/2022
