April increases incoming
National Minimum Wages (NMW) increase next month, so please don’t forget all salary increases need to be communicated to each individual in a change of terms letter. The only exception being is if their contract states ‘salary is based on national minimum wage’.
Mint HR can help you with these letters, if required.
Age 21 and over: £12.21 (up from £11.44) *National Living Wage
Age 18 to 20: £10.00 (up from £8.60)
Age 16 to 17: £7.55 (up from £6.40)
Apprentice: £7.55 (up from £6.40) *under 19 or 19+ if in first year
Employer National Insurance Contributions (NIC) will also rise in April from 13.8% to 15% and the threshold at which NIC applies will also reduce from £9,100 to £5,000 per annum.
Neonatal Care Leave
This new leave comes into force on 6 April 2025.
Leave will be provided to eligible parents of babies who, within 28 days of birth, require neonatal care for at least 7 days. The entitlement will be for up to 12 weeks’ paid leave. This is in addition to other entitlements; maternity, paternity leave etc.
This leave will be a day one right, but to be entitled to paid neonatal care leave the employee would need to have at least 26 weeks’ continuous service.
Team Mint are working on client’s handbook and policy updates on this as we speak.
Employee Handbook updates
Employee handbooks should be working documents – so are only of use if they are kept up to date. That includes both company-specific internal updates as well as legal ones.
Mint HR keeps a close eye on legislative changes so that the Handbook and policies we provide to clients are fit for purpose.
We will be emailing all our clients during March to obtain permission to update your handbook and keep them in check with all the latest changes.
Employment Rights Bill – 2026 changes #2
In our last newsletter, we explained that rather than bombard you all, we’re looking at one of the key proposed changes at a time throughout our newsletters this year.
If you missed Tracy’s blog regarding the proposed Day One rights to protection from unfair dismissal you can read it here.
This issue, we’re focussing on the proposed changes to…
Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)
Currently workers who qualify for SSP don’t receive payment for the first 3 days of any absence. There’s also a lower earnings threshold so if a worker earns less than £123 per week they can’t claim SSP.
The Bill is proposing the removal of this lower earning threshold and the 3 day waiting period. This would mean that all workers would be entitled to pay for sickness, regardless of their earnings and from day 1.
For those who earn less than £123 per week – their entitlement to sick pay will be less than those who earn above this limit.
No further details have been provided at this stage so there’s little you can do to prepare, other than to get your head in the mindset that this will be a big shift in terms of what people will legally be entitled to.
*Please also note that SSP is also increasing on 6th April 2025 from £116.75 to £118.75 per week.
**Please also note that businesses can no longer claim back SSP (small businesses used to be able to do this). We’ve been asked this a few times lately but it’s not been in play for quite some time.
Business founders must have a contract
If you run your own business, you probably have contracts for your team – but chances are you haven’t bothered getting one for yourself.
We recently heard from a close contact of ours that one of their clients had gone into liquidation. As the Owner and Director of the business their client didn’t have a signed agreement proving their statutory employment rights. This meant the liquidators may not give them a penny.
We hope liquidation isn’t on the cards for you, but however you exit your business in the future you should get protection now with a director’s agreement.
You’ve worked too hard not to have yourself protected and that’s why Mint HR is offering clients a directors agreement and will be in touch over the next week about this. However, if you think this definitely applies to you, please email tracy@mint-hr.com to get the ball rolling.
