Employment Law Rate Changes to Take Effect from April 2022

Senior solicitor Andrea Corr, in leading Thames Valley law firm Blandy & Blandy’s Employment Law team, summarizes changes coming into effect from April 2022 that will affect both employers and employees.

National Minimum Scale and National Living Scale

From 1 April 2022, both the National Living Wage (those aged 23 and over) and the National Minimum Wage (for those aged 16 – 22) are to increase. The new hourly rates and increases are as follows:-

Rates from April 2021 Rates from April 2022 Increase
National Living Scale (NLW)
for workers 23 and over
£8.91 £9.50 6.6%
21-22 year old rate (NMW) £8.36 £9.18 9.8%
18-20 year old rate (NMW) £6.56 £6.83 4.1%
16-17 year old rate (NMW) £4.62 £4.81 4.1%
Apprentice rate £4.30 £4.81 11.9%
Accommodation offset £8.36 £8.70 4.1%

family leave

For statutory family leave, which encompasses Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP), Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP), Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) and Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (SPBP) the weekly rates will increase to £156.66 per week (from £151.97) on 3 April 2022 (the first Sunday in April).

Statutory sick pay

All eligible employees (and some workers) are entitled to receive Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). From 6 April 2022, the rate will increase to £99.35 per week (from £96.35). For eligibility purposes, the lower earnings limit (LEL) will increase from £120 to £123 per week; this will represent the first increase to the LEL for two years.

Statutory Redundancy Pay

The cap on the value of a week’s pay, which is used to calculate Statutory Redundancy Pay for employees earning above that amount, will increase to £571 per week (from £544) with effect from 6 April 20222.

The overall maximum Statutory Redundancy Pay, based on 20 years’ service at an age multiplier of 1.5, therefore increases to £17,130 (from £16,320).

Employment Tribunals

Employment Tribunal compensation rates are also set to change from 6 April 2022.

A successful Claimant’s Basic Award is calculated in the same way as Statutory Redundancy Pay (see above).

Where a claimant is judged to have been unfairly dismissed (other than in automatic unfair dismissal cases), they are entitled to a compensatory award of a maximum of 52 actual weeks’ pay, subject to an overall cap. That capped allowance rises to £93,878 (from £89,493).

For further information or legal advice, please visit www.blandy.co.uk.

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