PAYE62010 - Employment maintenance: cease employment: P45 part 1 overview

Employers are required by law to send P45 Part 1 details to HMRC when an employee leaves their employment.  Employers in RTI do this by including leaving information on their Full Payment Submission (FPS).  Those not in RTI are required to send the information on form P45 Part 1. 

There are manual and computerised versions of the form available to employers.

Department for Work and Pensions also complete similar forms for people whose Jobseeker’s Allowance claims have terminated

• Online form P45 Part (1)
• Form (P45 Part (1)U(Man)) if the claim has been dealt with manually

For information about both of these forms see ‘Jobseeker’s allowance’ at PAYE67000 onwards.

Processing Offices are responsible for keeping employment records up to date so that the PAYE Service can operate effectively. Staff working on Employment Maintenance need to

• Be proactive in maintaining good relationships with employers
• Refer details of employers who persistently fail to comply with their obligations to the manager who should forward the details to their Employer Compliance Team to consider for compliance reviews

Offices should consider organising their Employment Maintenance teams in such a way as to be able to carry out business by telephone successfully with minimum disruption to the employer.

Where individuals become self employed or annual claims cases the Processing Office must clear the record to cessation of PAYE or the final year of liability and notify the SA office responsible for dealing with the self employment or the appropriate IRO.