The National Living Wage (NLW) came into effect on 1 April 2016 and means that employers must pay all workers, aged 25 and over at least £7.20 per hour. It applies to both full time and part time employees. If you employ a Personal Assistant, you must make sure you are using the correct rate of pay. Your Direct Payments should be sufficient to cover the new National Living Wage rate of £7.20 per hour. The NLW runs alongside the existing National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates already in force. The NMW rates are upgraded in October each year. These are the current rates for 2015/16: Age Minimum Rate Over 25 (NLW) £7.20 an hour 21-25 £6.70 18-20 £5.30 16-17 £3.87 Apprentices £3.30 Employment Allowance Since April 2014, every employer - including people who employ their own PAs – has been entitled to an annual Employment Allowance of £2,000 to reduce their employers national insurance costs. The government has announced it will increase the Employment Allowance to £3,000 a year from April 2016. This measure will help lessen the impact of the introduction of the new National Living Wage. 28 April is ‘Pay It Forward Day’ KDC has pledged its support for the Pay it Forward campaign. On Friday 28 April, our staff teams will all be carrying out a random act of kindness for 3 or more people and encouraging them to do the same. Pay it Forward cards will be passed onto the person receiving the good deed so that they can, in turn, pass the card on, along with a good deed for some else. The possibilities are endless and it’s a great way to get people involved in their communities. For more information and lots of ideas for your good deeds, visit www.payitforwardday.com and you can follow the campaign on Facebook and Twitter @ payitforwardday Andy Gilbert Service Manager andy.gilbert@kdc.org.uk Tel: 0151 480 8873 Colette Salt Independent Living Coordinator colette.salt@kdc.org.uk Tel: 0151 480 8873 Simone Stein Customer Finance Officer simone.stein@kdc.org.uk Tel: 0151 480 8873 Michelle Allan Customer Finance Assistant michelle.allan@kdc.org.uk Tel: 0151 480 8873 Martin Neary Business Support - KMBC martin.neary@kdc.org.uk Tel: 0151 480 8873 Joanne Morris Payroll Officer joanne.morris@kdc.org.uk Tel: 0151 949 5442 Sandra Windsor Payroll Assistant sandra.windsor@kdc.org.uk Tel: 0151 949 5442 Shruthi Urs Payroll Assistant Shruthi.urs@kdc.org.uk Tel: 0151 949 5442 Direct Payments Team Welcomes A New Member! The Liverpool Advice Alliance is a group of organisations including the Citizens Advice Bureau and a number of independent advice agency partners working together across the city to help people with benefits and appeals. Contact them via their website at www.liverpoolcap.org.uk. Knowsley has its own partnership of agencies offering free, confidential, impartial and independent advice, called Advice Services Knowsley (ASK) you can contact them via their website at www.adviceservicesknowlsey.org.uk For telephone advice call the Merseyside Citizens Adviceline on 0344 826 9694. Lines are open Monday - Friday, 10am - 4pm. If you have multiple sclerosis, the MS Society offers lots of tips and advice on how to make a claim for PIP including a guide to completing the ’how your disability affects you’ section and a template for keeping a daily diary. There is a free legal advice line for PIP appeals provided via the Disability Law Service. Visit www.msssociety.org.uk or phone 0808 800 8000. Many customers have been contacting us looking for help with problems around their benefits, particularly changes to their mobility allowance with the move to PIP (Personal Independence Payment). Whilst KDC does not deliver a benefits advice service directly, we can signpost and refer to organisations that do and our website contains details of a range of local agencies offering help. Simply click on the yellow ‘Info and Advice’ button and use the links on the right hand side of the page. If you need help to use the website, give us a call. Benefits Help And Advice Disability Rights UK has a useful guide to PIP and making a claim, including how to appeal. To download a copy visit www.disbilityrightsuk.org INFO & ADVICE The Prescot and Whiston Community Advice Centre will help with form -filling, appeals and may be able to represent people at tribunals. Call 443 4369 to make an appointment. You can also ‘drop in’ between 9.30 and 12.30 Monday to Friday. They are located at the Prescot One Stop Shop, Aspinal Street, Prescot L34 5GA. Turn2us is a national charity that helps people in financial hardship to gain access to welfare benefits, charitable grants and support services. It has a very useful interactive website which allows you access free and confidential information and advice on benefits, grants, managing money and redundancy. It also includes an online benefit calculator to work out what you could claim. Visit www.turn2us.org.uk or ring their helpline on 0800 8022000. A warm welcome goes to Shruthi Urs who joined us recently as full time Payroll Assistant. Shruthi will be working alongside Joanne and Sandra to help cope with the growth in local demand for our specialist payroll service. Originally from India, Shruthi joins us with a wealth of experience. She will be invaluable in delivering our Pensions Auto Enrolment Service – see back page for more information. A new service for local residents.... Deafblind UK is the longest established national charity serving deafblind people. We are delighted to announce their recent appointment of Corinne Barclay as Outreach Officer covering Knowsley, Liverpool and more widely Merseyside. The charity works with individuals by focusing on unlocking the person behind the disability, to help deafblind people to achieve their aspirations, no matter how simple or how adventurous. Deafblind UK offers free membership to anyone who is deafblind or has a combined sight and hearing loss of any degree. Membership benefits include: • A FREE one week holiday in an accessible caravan, near Great Yarmouth (subject to availability) • A FREE quarterly magazine, ‘Open Hand’, keeping people informed and up to date on latest events and campaigns, provided in an accessible format. • FREE access to their Information and Advice Line plus the option to receive regular calls for a catch up and general chat. Become a member: Tel: 0800 132320 , Textphone: 01733358100, Fax: 01733 358 356 or Email: info@deafblind.org.uk Remember that every local authority runs an ‘income maximisation can be arranged if needed. The number for Knowsley is 0151 443 4045 The service is open Monday to Thursday 9am- 5pm, and service’ to check you are claiming the right benefits and help make 4045. For Liverpool, ring 0800 0283697. Friday 9am-4pm and for the most vulnerable members, sure you get proper entitlement to housing benefit, council tax It is also worth remembering that if you work – or have worked – there is an Outreach Service providing face-to-face, bespoke discounts, free school meals etc. in a particular trade, industry or profession, your professional body support through home visits. Contact Corrine on 07884 They will not support you to appeal benefit decisions so you will may offer different forms of support for its members, so it might be 658027 or by email at corinne.barclay@deafblind.org.uk. need to contact the CAB or another agency for this. Home visits worth getting in touch. Knowsley Disability Concern is a registered charity - number 1103477 All workers in the UK are entitled to time off for holidays. The current annual allowance is 28 days (or 5.6 weeks), which includes public holidays. As a responsible employer you must allow your staff time off. Most PAs work part-time so it can be hard to work out how much time off for holidays you should allow. Your Payroll is here to help! We will calculate the number of hours your PA is entitled to, keep track of the holidays they take and show the number of hours left to take on their payslip. Here’s an example: Ann Jones works 20 hours per week so her holiday allowance is 112 hours for the year. She took a week’s holiday in April so she has 92 hours left to take during the rest of the holiday year. Time For A Holiday? Please note that the holiday year is classed as running from 1 April to 31 March. Remember: to take advantage of this service you must tell us about the holidays your PA is taking! Phone 949 5442 or email yourpayroll@kdc.org.uk. Alternatively you can use the variation form available to download from www.yourpayroll.org.uk. Mobile Payroll Service More and more customers are helping their PAs take advantage of our online service to access their pay slips using their tablets, mobile phones or other device. It works by sending an email alert for PAs to securely log onto our system to view, print or save their payslips, P60s and Auto Enrolment Pension information. All we need is their email address! Important Dates For Your Diary For customers who live in Knowsley Last date for changes 2 May 30 May 27 June 25 July Payslips out 11 May 8 June 6 July 3 August Wages pay date 16 May 13 June 11 July 8 August For customers who live in Liverpool Last date for changes 9 May 6 June 4 July 1 August Payslips out 18 May 15 June 13 July 10 August Wages pay date 23 May 20 June 18 July 15 August A reminder that if you have your home employment insurance policy with Premier Care, you have access to the specialist MSL legal advice helpline. Operating 24/7, MSL has a great deal of knowledge about direct payments and the unique employment situation that you are in. They offer one to one advice and guidance on all matters including health and safety, legal and tax issues. Legal Advice Helpline Make a note of the phone number - 0161 603 2167 Your Payroll is provided by KDC (Commercial) Limited, Company registered in England & Wales, number 8489813, a subsidiary of Knowsley Disability Concern, Charity Registration number 1103477 HAVE YOUR SAY Do you have any questions about any aspect of direct payments? Have you had an experience – good or bad - which you would like to share? Is there anything you need to know more about? If the answer is yes, then contact us here at KDC and we can include your views in our next edition. Contact Joyce on 480 4090 or email her at joyce.greaves@kdc.org.uk