Changes: April 2026!
The Good, the bad and the ugly!
Good News first:
- No uplifts in tax codes!
- Only a slight change to the National Insurance contributions: the lower-level limit (LEL is increasing to £129/week).
- Qualifying thresholds for pension auto enrolment will stay the same.
The Bad:
- Minimum wage increase: aged 21+ £12.71, 19-20: £10.85, 16-18 and apprentices in their first year: £8
- Statutory Parenting Pay rates will increase to £194/32. The rate of compensation will increase to 9% (meaning that small employer’s relief will be able to reclaim 109% from HMRC (Yay!)
- A New student loan plan (plan 5) will come into effect in April 2026.
- Employment allowance will remain the same as previous years at £10500.
The Ugly:
- Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will be eligible from day 1. No more waiting days, the LEL is also being abolished, which means more employees will be eligible for SSP.
- Employees will be eligible to give notice of paternity leave & Unpaid parental leave from day 1 of their employment.
- Changes to Bereaved Partners Paternity leave will be eligible from day 1 of employment. (if the child is under 1 year, or in the 1st year of adoption and the mother or primary adopter has passed, employees may be eligible for up to 52 weeks unpaid leave)
- Trade Union and redundancy changes are happening, more information can be provided on this if required.
*Our payroll system will have all the new updates from April 2026, so should you want/need any further information on any of the topics, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
*We recommend reviewing your employment contracts before April and make sure your employees know about the changes. I can also advice on key points to look at in your contracts.