Introduction   

In this month’s edition of the Employer Bulletin there are important updates and information on:   

PAYE   

• end of year reporting

• employers PAYE and Construction Industry Scheme repayments

• basic PAYE Tools — new release

• electronic payment deadline falls on a weekend

• payrolling employees’ benefits and expenses

• reporting expenses and benefits for the tax year ending 5 April 2025

• get ready for changes to employer National Insurance

• new online iForm for PAYE employment expenses

• update on employee hours data requirements

Tax updates and changes to guidance   

• company cars — classification of double cab pickups

• expanding the cash basis

• the Official Rate of Interest from 6 April 2025

• guidance updated — check your payroll for female employees who pay less National Insurance

• Guidelines for Compliance — Help with labour supply chain assurance  

• relevant motoring expenditure — National Insurance contributions

• basis period reform — reporting on a tax year basis

General information and customer support

• tax advice — don’t get caught out by tax avoidance

• payments to employees for pension scheme changes — the correct charging provision to apply

• statutory Neonatal Care Leave and Pay

• the deadline is approaching — help your employees top up their State Pensions

• HTML format of Employer Bulletin 

• getting more information and sending feedback 

HMRCs support for customers who need extra help 

HMRCs principles of support for customers who need extra help set out our commitment to support customers according to their needs and underpin the HMRC Charter.   

Find out how to get help and the extra support available.   

PAYE   

End of year reporting  

It is time to prepare for making your last Full Payment Submission (FPS) or Employer Payment Summary (EPS) of the year. Your last FPS or EPS of the year, up to and including 5 April 2025, needs to include an indicator that you are making the final submission. This tells us you have sent us everything you expected to send, and we can finalise our records for you and your employees. Some commercial payroll software will not let you put the indicator on an FPS. If that is the case, send your last FPS and then send an EPS with the indicator ticked. You can also send an EPS with the indicator ticked if you forgot to put the indicator on your last FPS submission for the tax year.   

You also need to prepare to give your employees a P60 if they are in your employment on 5 April 2025. This information must be provided to the employee by 31 May 2025. If you are not going to pay anyone again this tax year, remember to send an EPS with the indicator ticked to show you did not pay anyone in the final pay period and that this is your final submission. You have until 19 April 2025 to do this. If you have not filed by 11 April 2025, you will receive a reminder notification from the Generic Notification Service.  

Employers PAYE and Construction Industry Scheme repayments  

Following updates in the October 2024 Employer Bulletin and December 2024 Employer Bulletin, HMRC has made a number of improvements to support online claims for Employers’ repayments.  

You can find the new version of the online repayment claim form for Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) deductions at claim a refund of Construction Industry Scheme deductions if you’re a limited company or an agent. This online claim form enables you to upload evidence for your claim when requested by HMRC.  

HMRC has also introduced an online claim form for Employers’ PAYE repayments. Follow the guidance at you paid HMRC the wrong amount and claim a refund if you’ve overpaid. Make sure you work out why you overpaid before you claim. You can also ask for your overpayment to offset other taxes you owe, for example Corporation Tax.  

You can find out when you can expect to receive a reply from HMRC on the new online claim forms.  

Basic PAYE Tools — new release  

An update to the Basic PAYE Tools (BPT) will be released at the end of March 2025 to support the 2025 to 2026 tax year. It is important that you update and use version 25.0 from 6 April 2025.  

To update or check for updates you should select ‘Check now’ in the update section of settings in the top right-hand corner of the tool. It is also recommended that you set the automatic updates to ‘Yes’.  

As a new customer, before you can use BPT to run your payroll, you must have registered for online PAYE as instructed in your new employer letter.  

Further information and help on how to download BPT is available.

Electronic payment deadline falls on a weekend  

In February and March 2025 the electronic payment deadlines fall on Saturday 22 February 2025 and Saturday 22 March 2025 respectively. To make sure your payment for these months reaches us on time, you need to have funds cleared into HMRC’s account by 21 February 2025 and 21 March 2025, unless you are able to arrange a Faster Payment.  

It is your responsibility to make sure your payments are made on time and, if your payments are late, you may be charged a penalty.  

Check your bank or building society’s single transaction daily value limits and cut-off times well in advance of making your payment. Make sure you know when to initiate your payment, so it reaches HMRC on time.  

Further information on pay employers’ PAYE is available.  

Payrolling employees’ benefits and expenses

Employers can register to payroll benefits and expenses for their employees so they can be taxed through the payroll from 6 April 2025.  You can do this using the online payrolling benefits and expenses service any time between now and 5 April 2025 so your employee’s tax code is updated in time.   

You can only start to payroll benefits and expenses from the beginning of the new tax year. You have to payroll the benefits and expenses for the whole year, unless you stop providing them.  

You can payroll all benefits and expenses except:  

• employer provided living accommodation 

• interest free and low interest (beneficial) loans  

To use the online service you will need a Government Gateway user ID and password. You will also need to be enrolled for PAYE Online for Employers.   

You should also note:  

• you must have payroll software that can calculate the tax due on benefits for each pay period  

• instead of giving your employees a P11D, you need to give them a letter explaining what expenses and benefits you have payrolled   

• if you are payrolling expenses and benefits in kind you may still have a Class 1A National Insurance contributions liability and will still need to submit an online P11D(b) to tell us how much employer Class 1A National Insurance contributions you owe  

• you must still complete and submit P11D forms for any benefits and expenses which have not been payrolled in the tax years 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026   

• to reduce the likelihood of errors, you can prepare for payrolling by ensuring that data about employees, their earnings and their benefits are up to date  

More information about how to report expenses and benefits you provide to employees or directors is available.  

Reporting expenses and benefits for the tax year ending 5 April 2025  

P11D and P11D(b) deadlines 

For those employers who do not yet payroll, the deadline for reporting P11D(b) Class 1A National Insurance contributions, P11D expenses, and benefits in kind provided in the 2024 to 2025 tax year, is 6 July 2025.    

Your P11Ds and P11D(b) must be filed online and at the same time.   

Late submission may result in a penalty. HMRC charge penalties on a monthly basis and issue penalty notices each quarter until you file your return.      

If you make a mistake and need to submit an amendment to your P11D or P11D(b), you must also do this online. HMRC no longer accepts paper amendments. Refer to guidance Expenses and benefits for employers for further information.  

Joint beneficial loans    

If you provide joint beneficial loans to your employees, remember to divide the total cash equivalent figure by the number of employees on the joint beneficial loan. Use this final figure to complete the cash equivalent for each employee on their P11D before you file your returns.   

If the final cash equivalent figure is nil, record this as £0.00 on the P11D before submission.

Get ready for changes to employer National Insurance  

Changes to employer National Insurance will take effect on 6 April 2025.   

HMRC is reminding employers of the details so you can prepare. The changes will be incorporated into existing payroll software for employers who already report PAYE. The threshold changes mean that some employers may be liable to pay employers’ National Insurance and required to report their employee pay and deductions to HMRC for the first time.  

Contribution rate increases  

The employer Secondary Class 1 National Insurance contributions rate will increase to 15% from 13.8%.  The associated Class 1A and 1B National Insurance contributions rates on expenses and benefits given to employees are also increasing to 15%.  

Secondary Threshold for employer National Insurance liability to reduce  

The Secondary Threshold is the point at which employers start to pay employer National Insurance contributions on an employee’s salary. The Secondary Threshold is decreasing from £9,100 to £5,000 per year.  

Employers will need to pay employer National Insurance contributions where they employ staff earning £5,000 a year or more, and report these payments to HMRC.  

Those new to paying employer National Insurance contributions will need to register with HMRC to use payroll software through PAYE.  

Employment Allowance changes 

The Employment Allowance (EA) reduces eligible employers’ National Insurance contributions liability. The EA is currently restricted to employers with National Insurance contributions bills of less than £100,000 in the previous tax year. From 6 April 2025, the £100,000 threshold will be removed, and the maximum amount of EA will increase from £5,000 to £10,500 meaning more eligible businesses will be able to claim, and at an increased amount. Abolition of the £100,000 EA threshold means that, from 6 April 2025, employers will no longer need to consider State aid where they had done so because of the threshold restriction.  

Most businesses or charities can apply for Employment Allowance. However, they cannot do so if they are a public body or a business whose activities wholly or mainly involve the performance of functions which are of a public nature. Whether these functions are publicly funded can indicate functions of a public nature, but funding alone is not a deciding factor. If the company has just one director and that director is the only employee liable for secondary Class 1 National Insurance contributions they are also ineligible.  

Further information on Changes to the Class 1 National Insurance Contributions Secondary Threshold, the Secondary Class 1 National Insurance contributions rate, and the Employment Allowance from 6 April 2025 is available.  

Further information on PAYE and payroll for employers  is available.  

We are due to update financial threshold details for 6 April 2025 when they take effect. For further  guidance, Check if you’re eligible for the Employment Allowance.

New online iForm for PAYE employment expenses  

Further to our previous ‘Employer Bulletin’ update, HMRC has now reimplemented the ability for individuals to claim tax relief on work expenses, for example professional subscription fees or mileage allowance, through an online form.  

We had to temporarily switch to a paper and post route, between 14 October 2024 and late December 2024, to respond to a growing tax risk driven by ineligible claims for employment expenses.   

We need to make sure that customers get the tax relief they are entitled to in as straightforward a way as possible. However, we also need to make sure that we identify where customers are not eligible and prevent them receiving payments they are not entitled to.  

From 23 December 2024, customers were advised of an online route available. Individuals who wish to claim tax relief for employment expenses can submit their claim and supporting evidence using an online iForm.   

This will make it easier for individual employees who may have been put off from claiming employment expenses due to the temporary unavailability of an online route.  

Further information on evidence required to claim PAYE employment expenses is available.  

We are sharing this update with employers in case they need to update their internal guidance, especially those that do not reimburse expenses for their employees.  

Update on employee hours data requirements    

Employers will no longer have to provide more detailed employee hours data to HMRC from April 2026. The government has listened to businesses and acted on their feedback about the administrative burden the PAYE (Pay As You Earn) data requirements would bring. 

The government previously proposed the requirement for more detailed employee hours data provided through PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) returns, as well as  requirements for start and end dates of self-employment and dividend income paid to company owner managers in their own businesses, both provided through Income Tax Self Assessment (ITSA) returns. The proposed ITSA data requirements are going ahead and will come into effect on 6 April 2025 as planned but the PAYE requirements will not be taken forward. 

The government remains committed to data transformation and will continue to focus on other initiatives delivering improved data, including Making Tax Digital for ITSA, digitalising business rates, and investing in our IT infrastructure. 

Tax updates and changes to guidance   

Company cars — classification of double cab pickups  

Following the Government’s Autumn Budget 2024 announcements, HMRC has published new guidance regarding a change in the interpretation of how double cab pickup (DCPU) vehicles should be classified for car benefit, capital allowances and some deductions from business profits purposes.      

The current treatment of DCPU vehicles as outlined in Employment Income Manual (EIM23150) was adopted from 2002 and is based on payload. This finely balanced test is inconsistent with the Court of Appeal’s decision in Payne & Ors (Coca-Cola) v R & C Commrs (2020) (BTC19) which established that a narrow margin of suitability is not sufficient to determine that a vehicle is primarily suited for a particular purpose. It also determined, that in cases were a vehicle cannot clearly be identified as being predominantly suited for carrying goods the default should be that the vehicles are cars.    

New guidance for car benefits, part of the Employment Income Tax Manual (EIM23151), explains that from 6 April 2025 HMRC will no longer be applying this payload test to determine whether a DCPU is primarily suited for the conveyance of goods or burden. From that date, a vehicle must be assessed as a whole at the point that it is made available to determine whether the vehicle construction has a primary suitability. The guidance also provides information on the transitional arrangements for DCPUs leased, purchased or ordered before 6 April 2025.    

For capital allowance purposes new guidance is available at Capital Allowances Manual (CA23511) . This explains the change in treatment for expenditure incurred on or after 1 April 2025 for Corporation Tax and 6 April 2025 for Income Tax. It also includes transitional arrangements, in place for contracts entered into before these dates relating to expenditure incurred before 1 October 2025. The updated guidance for deductions from business profits can be found at Business Income Manual (BIM47730) and Business Income Manual (BIM70035).  

Expanding the cash basis   

From 6 April 2024 there are changes to the cash basis which will make it easier for many businesses to use. The previous upper turnover limit, and restrictions for loss making businesses and for interest payments are removed from the 2024 to 2025 Self Assessment return, due by 31 January 2026. If businesses wish to use traditional accruals accounting, or they are excluded from using the cash basis, they will need to opt out of the cash basis when submitting their 2024 to 2025 Self-Assessment, and subsequent years, tax return. These changes only apply to the cash basis for trading income, no changes are being made to the cash basis for property businesses.   

The Official Rate of Interest from 6 April 2025  

The Official Rate of Interest (ORI) is used to calculate the Income Tax charge on the benefit of employment-related loans and the taxable benefit of some employment related living accommodation.   

The government announced at Autumn Budget 2024 that the previous public commitment, made in January 2000 to not increase the rate during the tax year, will no longer be applicable. As of 6 April 2025, the ORI may increase, decrease, or be maintained throughout the year.    

The rate will continue to be reviewed on a quarterly basis. Any changes in the rate will occur following a quarterly review, where appropriate. If there are any changes to the rate, these will take effect on 6 April, 6 July, 6 October and 6 January. Any future changes to the rate will be published online at beneficial loan arrangements — HMRC official rates.  

This change will increase fairness across the tax system by enabling the ORI to increase in-year where appropriate, ensuring employment-related beneficial loans and living accommodation are correctly valued.    

Further information can be found at Autumn Budget 2024 — overview of tax legislation and rates (OOTLAR).  

How this will affect employers   

If you provide employment-related loans or living accommodation to your employees, you will need to remain aware of any future changes in the rate. As of 6 April 2025, the rate may increase in-year which will impact the taxable value of the benefits you provide.   

Guidance updated — check your payroll for female employees who pay less National Insurance 

HMRC has added more information to guidance to help employers check the eligibility of employees who pay the married women’s and widow’s reduced rate of National Insurance, sometimes called the ‘small stamp’.   

You must check your employee’s date of birth and gender are correct and that they are eligible to pay the reduced rate of National Insurance before you submit a payroll submission. If a female employee gives you a ‘certificate of election’ form, she may be able to pay less National Insurance.  Check the details on the certificate against the updated guidance.  

The updated guidance payroll for female employees who pay less National Insurance now states that married women born before 6 April 1961 could choose to pay less National Insurance until 1977, when the scheme ended. If your employee opted in before it ended, she can keep paying a reduced rate.  

Guidance on which National Insurance category letter you must use for your employee’s payroll submission on the reduced rate is also updated and explained in the general payroll guidance. This shows the different category letters you must use for eligible employees paying the reduced rate, according to their place of work.   

The National Insurance rate and categories letter table is also updated to specify that only eligible employees should be given the National Insurance category letter for paying the married women’s and widow’s reduced rate, according to where they work.  

The majority will use category B for the reduced rate. The additional categories and letters to be used where this reduced rate would apply for those eligible are:   

• E — if you are claiming Investment Zones National Insurance relief   

• I — if you are claiming Freeport National Insurance relief   

• T — if your employee is a mariner on a foreign-going vessel   

Additional information is also included in the associated guidance ‘If your employee stops paying less National Insurance’ on the action you need to take. This includes changing your employees’ National Insurance category letter in your payroll software, usually to A, or as follows:  

• N — if you are claiming Investment Zones National Insurance relief   

• F — if you are claiming Freeport National Insurance relief   

• V — if you are claiming Veterans National Insurance Contribution relief  

• R — if your employee is a mariner on a foreign-going vessel   

Employers should check employees’ date of birth and gender as well as the ‘certificate of election’ when reporting payroll for the married women’s and widow’s reduced rate. If you need to correct an employee’s National Insurance category letter you can find further information on how to fix problems with running payroll.  

Guidelines for Compliance — Help with labour supply chain assurance   

HMRC has recently published new Guidelines for Compliance — Help with labour supply chain assurance — GfC12. The guidelines are designed for larger organisations in the top tiers of a labour supply chain. However, the principles can be applied to most businesses.  

HMRC continues to tackle tax defaulters in labour supply chains directly. Many risks arise where there are opportunities to exploit larger, higher value and more complex chains. HMRC is concerned about how these risks can affect a business’s own tax affairs.  

Larger businesses can find themselves affected by multiple risks. These guidelines explain how customers can self-assess their own assurance practices. They will help customers identify and limit the impact of risks.  

The guidelines:  

• explain what labour supply chains are and the associated risks  

• promote the importance of effective labour supply chain assurance  

• provide practical advice to consider when carrying out labour supply chain assurance  

Guidelines for Compliance are part of HMRC’s ongoing commitment to publishing practical support for customers. They provide HMRC’s view on complex, widely misunderstood, or novel risks that occur across tax regimes.  

More information, including our other publications, can be found on Guidelines for Compliance .  

Relevant motoring expenditure — National Insurance contributions  

In the December 2023 Employer Bulletin HMRC shared an update following the decision at the Upper Tribunal in the case of Wilmott Dixon and Laing O’Rourke. This case found that car allowance payments were relevant motoring expenditure.   

If business mileage is undertaken by an employee and mileage payments of less than the highest applicable approved mileage allowance payment rate  for tax are paid, not all of the car allowance will be chargeable to Class 1 National Insurance contributions.  

A qualifying amount calculation determines the total amount of relevant motoring expenditure that can be paid without deductions. Class 1 National Insurance contributions are due on Relevant Motoring Expenditure payments above that amount.  

Repayments — employers  

Real Time Information (RTI) should be used to make corrections. Guidance for employers on how to fix problems with running payroll, including how to make corrections to an employee’s National Insurance deductions is available.  

The information which should be retained supporting the correction, on a pay period basis is:  

• a list of the employees, with their National Insurance numbers   

• evidence of the number of business miles undertaken by each employee   

• the amount of car allowance payments that these employees received   

• details of any other relevant motoring expenditure payments that the employees have received  

• the Primary and Secondary Class 1 National Insurance contributions that are being reclaimed  

If you cannot make an RTI adjustment, contact WMBC.RMERepayments@hmrc.gov.uk  to explain why this is not possible.  

You will then receive a document to provide the required information. Customers in HMRC’s Large Business population should contact their Customer Compliance Manager.  

This e-mail address will be used for this purpose only. We will not be able to respond to other queries so make sure these are sent to the appropriate mailbox or address.   

Repayments — employees  

Employees should continue to contact their employer in the first instance. If the employer is not applying for a refund, HMRC’s usual process for claiming a National Insurance repayment will apply. Further guidance on claiming a National Insurance refund is available.  

The supporting information required will be the same as for employers, this includes:  

• evidence of the number of business miles undertaken by the employee  

• the amount of car allowance payments they have received   

• details of any other relevant motoring expenditure payments that they have received  

Employees should also confirm to HMRC that their employer is not applying for a refund on their behalf.  

Real Time Information returns  

If employers pay mileage at less than the approved mileage allowance payment rate  for tax, changes are required to how their RTI returns are prepared. This ensures the correct amount of Class 1 National Insurance contributions are deducted when employees are paid.  

This means that the amount of the car allowance that is chargeable to Class 1 National Insurance contributions will vary from month-to-month, depending on the number of business miles undertaken by the employee.  

This applies whether an employer has chosen to claim a repayment for previous years or not.  

Ideally an employee’s mileage would be reflected in the relevant motoring expenditure calculation in the month that that mileage is undertaken. However, HMRC accept that this cannot always happen because of when the mileage is recorded. It is therefore acceptable for it to be reflected in the next pay period if it is practical to do so.   

For example, mileage undertaken in December 2024 would be recorded at the end of December 2024 then paid in January 2025, after payroll cut off. The first practical period would be February 2025, the calculation of relevant motoring expenditure for February would therefore include the business mileage from December.  

Mileage Allowance Relief Optional Reporting System

To obtain tax relief, where mileage payments are less than the HMRC approved rate, employees need to make claims to HMRC themselves.  

However, employers can opt in to the Mileage Allowance Relief Optional Reporting Scheme (MARORS) and tell HMRC about their employees’ business mileage and mileage payments. This is beneficial to employees as they do not need to send HMRC additional information.  

Any repayments due to employees would be subject to the normal time limits.  

Contact HMRC to opt into MARORS.  

Basis period reform — reporting on a tax year basis 

From April 2024, if you are self-employed or in a trading partnership, you have to report your profits on a tax year basis.    

Although businesses remain free to choose their accounting date and can prepare accounts to any date in the year, if they do not do so to a period between 31 March and 5 April they will need to apportion profits from 2 accounting periods to the tax year.    

If you do not already do so, for the tax year 2023 to 2024 you will need to declare your profits from the end of the previous accounting period in 2022 to 2023 up to 5 April 2024. Any additional profit, after overlap relief, will be transition profit. By default, this transition profit is spread equally over the next 5 years including 2023 to 2024.  

If you applied to HMRC to request your overlap relief figure on or before the filing deadline of 31 January 2025 using our overlap relief tool  but did not receive a response and have still not filed your return, you have until 28 February 2025 to file it with a provisional figure — or final figure if known. By doing so, you will not incur a late filing penalty, although interest will still accrue from 1 February 2025 on outstanding amounts of tax. You should then amend your return once the final figure is known. Tax can be paid without filing. Amounts paid will reduce any interest charged.  

Many businesses may find it easier to prepare accounts to 31 March or 5 April from 2024 onwards. This may make completing the tax return simpler as there will be no need to use 2 sets of accounts to complete each tax return. Accounting periods ending on 31 March will be treated as equivalent to those ending on 5 April for all businesses, including property businesses.   

Further guidance on how to amend Self Assessment tax returns is available.  

Further guidance to get help with basis period reform is available.  

General information and customer support

Tax advice — don’t get caught out by tax avoidance  

Our ‘don’t get caught out’ campaign helps contractors learn how to spot the signs of tax avoidance. Including how to check their pay to make sure they are paying the right amount of tax.   

To help protect them from tax avoidance. HMRC is asking that you share this information with your workers.

This short Youtube video for contractors using umbrella companies provides online guidance.

This interactive tools allows workers to check if their contracts could involve tax avoidance  or work out their pay from an umbrella company       

Also available are personal stories from people who have been caught up in tax avoidance schemes, including a Youtube video of Tanya’s story 

Contractors can also find the support they need to leave and report a tax avoidance scheme. Our aim is to get them back on the right track, without judgement, to simply offer the help they need to get out of the scheme and settle their tax affairs.     

Details of  tax avoidance schemes and their promoters to steer clear of are also published. This is not a complete list. There may be others that we cannot currently publish. Remember, HMRC never approves tax avoidance schemes for use.     

We encourage you to share our supportive campaign resources across your newsletters and websites. Including sharing and liking our posts on social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, X (Twitter).   

Payments to employees for pension scheme changes — the correct charging provision to apply  

HMRC was recently successful in the Court of Appeal case HMRC v E.ON UK plc [2023] EWCA Civ 1383.   

The case concerned an employer making changes to their defined benefit pension scheme which affected future pension expectations but not accrued rights.   

The employer then paid ‘Facilitation Payments’ to employees for agreeing to the changes.    

The Court of Appeal ruled that the payments were derived from the employment and are therefore considered taxable as earnings.   

The Court of Appeal ruling confirms HMRC’s view that any payment connected with a change to employees’ terms and conditions, including pension changes, should be regarded as a payment of earnings and paid net of tax and deductions.  

Statutory Neonatal Care Leave and Pay  

The government intends to introduce a new statutory entitlement to Neonatal Care Leave and Pay from 6 April 2025. This will provide employed parents whose babies are admitted to neonatal care with a day-one employment right to take up to 12 weeks off work, depending on the length of time their baby is in neonatal care. Eligible parents will also be entitled to up to 12 weeks of statutory pay.  

The Department for Business and Trade laid the regulations to implement this right in January 2025. Subject to Parliamentary agreement, the new entitlement will apply to babies born on or after 6 April 2025.  

A summary of the entitlement is provided in the following sections. Full guidance will be available soon.  

Eligibility  

This will be available to a broad range of ‘parents’, including adoptive parents, parents who are fostering to adopt and the intended parents in surrogacy arrangements.   

Employed parents whose babies are admitted into neonatal care up to the age of 28 days, and who have a continuous stay of seven full days or more, will be entitled to leave as a new day-one employment right. Eligible parents will be able to take a minimum of one week, and a maximum of 12 weeks, depending on how long their baby is in neonatal care. This is on top of their other parental entitlements such as maternity, paternity and shared parental leave.   

For eligible parents to also qualify for Statutory Neonatal Care Pay, they must also meet continuity of service and minimum earnings tests. This means the eligible employee must have worked for their employer for at least 26 weeks ending with the relevant week and earn on average at least £125 per week before tax from April 2025.   

Notice and information requirements  

Leave and pay can be taken in 2 Tiers, Tier 1 and Tier 2. The notice and evidence requirements for each Tier are:

Tier 1 — is a period when the child is still receiving neonatal care, and including one week after the care has ended. 

Tier 2 — is the period outside the Tier 1 period and before the end of 68 weeks from the date of the child’s birth. 

Neonatal Care Leave notice periods  

An employee will need to give notice to take Neonatal Care Leave (NCL). The length and format of notice for leave will vary depending on whether the employee intends to take leave in Tier 1 or Tier 2.  

For leave taken in Tier 1, the employee will need to notify their employer before they would be due to start work on the first day of absence, or as soon as possible thereafter. The notice does not need to be in written form.     

For leave taken in Tier 2, the employee will need to provide notice at least 15 days before the start of a period of one week leave. For a period of 2 or more weeks of leave, the employee will need to provide notice at least 28 days before the start of the leave. The notice must be in written form.   

Neonatal Care Pay notice periods  

An employee must provide written notice for Tier 1 Neonatal Care Pay (NCP) within 28 days beginning with the first day of the week in which NCP is being claimed.   

For Tier 2 NCP, an employee must give a notice at least 15 days in advance in order to claim pay for one week’s leave. Notice must be given at least 28 days in advance to claim pay for 2 or more weeks of leave.   

Neonatal Care Leave and Neonatal Care Pay information requirements 

At the same time, to receive leave and or pay for leave taken in either Tier 1 or Tier 2, an employee must provide the following information to the employer: 

• the employee’s name  

• the date of the child’s birth  

• if applicable, the date of the child’s placement with the adopter or prospective adopter  

• if applicable, the date of the child’s entry into Great Britain to live with the overseas adopter  

• the date the child started to receive neonatal care, or each date if the child received neonatal care on 2 or more separate occasions  

• if the child is no longer receiving neonatal care, the date that the care ended  

• if it is the first time a notice is being given, a declaration that the employee meets the parental relationship criteria   

• that they, the employee, has cared for or intend to care for the child during the week or weeks to which the notice relates   

The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 applies only to Great Britain. At the current time, no legislation to introduce Neonatal Care Leave and Pay has been introduced in Northern Ireland, therefore, the measure will not apply in Northern Ireland.  

The deadline is approaching — help your employees top up their State Pensions  

Your employees have until 5 April 2025 to fill gaps in their National Insurance records back to 6 April 2006, which could boost their State Pension. After the 5 April 2025, they will only be able to fill gaps for the previous 6 tax years.   

The HMRC app and our online service enables most customers to quickly and easily:  

• check if there are gaps in their National Insurance record, find out more about checking their record for gaps in voluntary National Insurance  

• find out if making a payment would increase their State Pension and then make a payment if they can  

Choosing the ‘pay by bank account’ option means it will only take up to 5 working days for their payment to show in their National Insurance record.  

You should let your employees know and encourage them to act now.  

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Since September 2020, material published on GOV.UK or other public sector websites must meet accessibility standards. This is so they can be used by as many people as possible, including those with:   

• impaired vision   

• motor difficulties   

• cognitive impairments or learning disabilities   

• deafness or impaired hearing   

There is now a contents page, with links, which is fully scrollable. Articles have been put into categories under a heading which is within the introduction to make it easier to find the updates and information you are interested in.   

The HTML format does allow you (dependent upon your web browser):   

• to print off the document should you wish to keep a paper file:  
  • select the ‘Print this page’ button underneath the contents and print to your local printer   
• to save the document as a PDF:  
  • select the ‘Print this page’ button and using the drop-down list on the printer select ‘print to PDF’, which allows you to save as PDF and file electronically   
  • on a mobile device you can select more options, then select options to be able to save as PDF   

Getting more information and sending feedback   

Make sure you are kept up to date with changes by signing up to receive our email alerts.   

You can also follow us on X (Twitter) @HMRCgovuk.   

Send your feedback about this Employer Bulletin or articles you may wish to see, by email to: GRP128613644@hmrc.onmicrosoft.com.