April 2022 – changes to rates and limits

From 6 April 2022, new increased compensation limits for employment tribunal claims will come into force. The revised figures are:

  • An increase in a statutory week’s pay to £571 (from £544). This is used to calculate a statutory redundancy payment and the unfair dismissal basic award, for example.
  • An increase in the maximum unfair dismissal basic award to £17,130 (up from £16,320).
  • An increase in the maximum unfair dismissal compensatory award to £93,878 (from £89,493).

Following the above changes, the new maximum total basic and compensatory awards for a standard unfair dismissal claim will be £111,008 (where the dismissal occurs on or after 6 April 2022). However, the usual cap of 52 weeks’ actual pay will continue to apply for those who earn less than £93,878 per year. This commonly reduces the compensatory award available to lower paid employees to below the statutory cap.

Pay gap reporting

Employers with more than 250 employees will be no strangers to the requirement to produce an annual report on gender pay within their organisation. However, this current reporting obligation could well be extended to apply to both disability and ethnicity pay gap reporting.

The Government consultation on the benefits and barriers in relation to disability workforce reporting closes on 25 March and a response is expected by 17 June 2022. In relation to ethnicity, the Women & Equalities Committee has called on the Government to implement the reporting obligation, with a recommendation that the mandate begins by April 2023. Watch this space.

Immigration right to work checks

The Home Office has further extended the deadline for expiry of the Covid-adjusted right to work checks until 30 September 2022. Employers have been permitted to conduct right to work checks by video link since the beginning of the pandemic. In practice this means that employers can continue to either conduct the right to work check via video link or by using the Home Office’s online right to work checking service, thereby not requiring employers to conduct in-person checks.

Although it has been confirmed that from 6 April employers will be able to use Identification Document Validation Technology (IDVT) in order to carry out digital right to work checks for British and Irish citizens who hold a valid passport (or passport card), the extension of Covid-adjusted right to work checks until 30 September 2022 is a pragmatic measure aimed at giving employers sufficient time to develop relationships with approved identity service providers and to update their internal procedures to take account of the new digital check process that will be available to them. 

Please note that the Home Office has confirmed that from 6 April 2022 employers will only be able to conduct an online right to work check using the Home Office’s dedicated service for those individuals issued with a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) or a Biometric Residence Card (BRC). Please see our article for further details on this matter.

Immigration – Ukraine and Russia crisis

We understand that employers may have staff or candidates currently in Ukraine, Belarus or Russia, who might be trying to relocate to the UK. We also understand that there are several other countries outside Europe where Ukrainian and Russian nationals have temporarily moved with the intention of relocating to the UK as soon as possible. This is an evolving situation and there have been changes to the Immigration Rules as well. If you have any staff or candidates, or their family members in such a situation, then please do get in touch with one of our immigration team members.

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