Tag: Gov.uk

FURLOUGH – Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme Changes

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will close on 31 October 2020.

From 1 August 2020, the level of grant will be reduced each month

The table below shows Government contribution, required employer contribution and amount employee receives where the employee is furloughed 100% of the time.

Wage caps are proportional to the hours not worked.

	July	August	September	October
Government contribution: employer NICs and pension contributions	Yes	No	No	No
Government contribution: wages	80% up to £2,500	80% up to £2,500	70% up to £2,187.50	60% up to £1,875
Employer contribution: employer NICs and pension contributions	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Employer contribution: wages	–	–	10% up to £312.50	20% up to £625
Employee receives	80% up to £2,500 per month	80% up to £2,500 per month	80% up to £2,500 per month	80% up to £2,500 per month

More information can be found here

Guidance for Employers and Businesses on Coronavirus (COVID-19)

What you need to know

businesses and workplaces should encourage their employees to work at home, wherever possible
if someone becomes unwell in the workplace with a new, continuous cough or a high temperature, they should be sent home and advised to follow the advice to stay at home
employees should be reminded to wash their hands for 20 seconds more frequently and catch coughs and sneezes in tissues
frequently clean and disinfect objects and surfaces that are touched regularly, using your standard cleaning products
employees will need your support to adhere to the recommendation to stay at home to reduce the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) to others
those who follow advice to stay at home will be eligible for statutory sick pay (SSP) from the first day of their absence from work
employers should use their discretion concerning the need for medical evidence for certification for employees who are unwell. This will allow GPs to focus on their patients
if evidence is required by an employer, those with symptoms of coronavirus can get an isolation note from NHS 111 online, and those who live with someone that has symptoms can get a note from the NHS website
employees from defined vulnerable groups should be strongly advised and supported to stay at home and work from there if possible

The full document can be found here

Deadlines For Filing Charitable Company Accounts

A Reminder from Companies House

If your charity is registered as a company with Companies House, and your year end is 31st March, your MUST file your company accounts with Companies House by 31st December

For other year end dates, the deadline is:

9 months from the accounting reference date for a private company
6 months from the accounting reference date for a public company

Please be aware of the definition of a period of months in connection with filing accounts. A period of months after a given date ends on the corresponding date in the appropriate month. For example a private company with an accounting reference date of 4 April has until midnight on 4 January of the following year to deliver its accounts, not 31 January. This does not apply if your accounting reference date is the last day of the month. In this case the period allowed for filing accounts would end with the last day of the appropriate month. For example a private company with an accounting reference date of 30 April has until midnight on 31 January of the following year to deliver its accounts, not 30 January.

If a filing deadline falls on a Sunday or Bank Holiday, the law still requires you to file the accounts by that date. To avoid a penalty, please ensure that you send acceptable accounts in time to arrive before the deadline.

It’s the date that you deliver acceptable accounts which meet the relevant legal requirements to Companies House that is important, not the date that you sent the accounts.

When To Claim Gift Aid

When you must claim

Your deadline to claim Gift Aid depends on how your charity is set up.

You need to claim for a donation within 4 years of the end of the financial period you received it in. This is:

the tax year (6 April to 5 April) if you’re a trust
your accounting period if your charity is a community amateur sports club (CASC), a Charity Incorporated Organisation (CIO) or a limited company

You must claim on cash donations under the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme within 2 years of the end of the tax year that the donations were collected in.

Keeping records

You need to keep records of these donations for a further two years

How to claim

You can claim Gift Aid using Charities Online with:

eligible software, like a database
a spreadsheet of your donations

For claims of over 1,000 donations you must use software.

To apply by post use form ChR1, which you can get from the charities helpline.

When you’ll get paid

You’ll get a Gift Aid payment by BACS within:

4 weeks if you claimed online
5 weeks if you claimed by post using form ChR1

Closing Down A Charitable Company

The company must first of all be removed from the Companies Register but only if it:

hasn’t traded or sold off any stock in the last 3 months
hasn’t changed names in the last 3 months
isn’t threatened with liquidation
has no agreements with creditors, eg a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA)

A company can apply to the registrar to be struck off the register and dissolved if it’s no longer needed, for example if:

the directors wish to retire and there is no one to take over the running of the company
the company is a subsidiary whose name is no longer needed
the company was originally set up to exploit an idea that turned out not to be feasible

More details can be found here:

Once the company has been removed from the Companies House Register, it can be removed from the Register of Charities.

A charitable company has an automatic right to expend all of its assets on its purposes.

You can tell the Charity Commission that you have wound it up by completing the closure form. This can be done online – more details can be found here:

Pension Wise

Pension wise is a free and impartial government service that helps you understand the options for your pension pot.

Who?

Pension Wise can help if you:

are aged 50 or over
have a personal or workplace pension
want to make sense of your options

What?

What is a Pension Wise appointment?

Specialist pension guidance
45 to 60 minutes
Over the phone or local to you

How?

How to book an appointment?

Phone 0800 138 1585
Online Book a free appointment

More information can be found here

Making Staff Redundant – Consultations

Related image If you do not consult employees in a redundancy situation, any redundancies you make will almost certainly be unfair and you could be taken to an employment tribunal.

Collective consultation

Follow these steps:

You must notify the Redundancy Payments Service (RPS) before a consultation starts. The deadline depends on the number of proposed redundancies.
Consult with trade union representatives or elected employee representatives – or with staff directly if there are none.
Provide information to representatives or staff about the planned redundancies, giving representatives or staff enough time to consider them.
Respond to any requests for further information.
Give any affected staff termination notices showing the agreed leaving date.
Issue redundancy notices once the consultation is complete.

More detailed information can be found here

Sick Leave and Holidays

Sick leave and holiday

Statutory holiday sickness entitlement is built up (accrued) while an employee is off work sick (no matter how long they’re off).

Any statutory holiday entitlement that isn’t used because of illness can be carried over into the next leave year. If an employee is ill just before or during their holiday, they can take it as sick leave instead.

An employee can ask to take their paid holiday for the time they’re off work sick. They might do this if they don’t qualify for sick pay, for example. Any rules relating to sick leave will still apply.

Employers can’t force employees to take annual leave when they’re eligible for sick leave.

Pay

When an employee changes their holiday to sick leave they’re paid Statutory Sick Pay which will count towards the amount of holiday pay they’ve received. The exceptions to this rule are:

they don’t qualify for Statutory Sick Pay
they were off work sick and being paid ‘occupational sick pay’

Charity Reserves

What Are Reserves?

Reserves are that part of a charity’s unrestricted funds that is freely available to spend on any of the charity’s purposes. This definition excludes restricted income funds and endowment funds, although holding such funds may influence a charity’s reserves policy. Reserves will also normally exclude tangible fixed assets such as land, buildings and other assets held for the charity’s use. It also excludes amounts designated for essential future spending.

Reserves also exclude funds which have particular restrictions on how they can be used. Trustees should consider for what purpose restricted funds are held and how they are being used in order to identify those resources that are freely available to spend.

You can find out much more about Reserves here

Making Changes to the Objects of your Charity

Your charity’s objects or purposes, and the rules for how it should operate are set out in its Governing Document.

Only change your governing document if it’s in your charity’s best interest to do so. For example, if:

your charity’s purposes aren’t a practical or appropriate way to meet the need it was set up for any more
your governing document doesn’t say who your charity’s trustees are or how they are appointed
provisions explaining how you must run the charity (for example, how to arrange meetings) are no longer relevant or practical

As trustees, you’ll need to decide that the change is necessary and what it should be. You can make some changes yourself but others need Charity Commission permission.

More detailed information can be found here