News

NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE - The record keeping rules for employers paying the national minimum wage changed on 1 April, the same day the new pay rates came into force. The new rules extends the recording keeping period from three years to six years,...

TAX YEAR - Today is the beginning of a new tax year marking the start of changes to UK finances bought in by the Department of Work and Pensions. State pensions Pension payments are set to rise by 2.5%, which means people over the age of 66 on t...

RECRUITMENT - Hiring veterans is good for business. Military personnel are highly trained, disciplined and make excellent instructors. What they frequently lack - as you would expect, is the experience of working in a civilian environment.  ...

DWP TRAINING HELP - Millions of jobseekers will be able to access longer work-related training while in receipt of benefits to boost their chances of finding employment. Later this month, DWP Train and Progress (TaP), a new DWP initiative aimed at in...

SPECIAL PAYMENT - If you are part of a working household that receives tax credits, you may be eligible for a new one-off payment of £500. The new payment is being introduced to provide extra support when the temporary increase in Working Tax Cr...

US EMPLOYMENT - Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 916,000 in March, and the unemployment rate edged down to 6.0 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported. These improvements in the labor market reflect the continued resump...

UNEMPLOYMENT -  is 1,703,000 and has fallen by 41,000 from last month’s published figure (quarterly headline has risen by 11,000) and the unemployment rate 5.0%, decreased by 0.1 percentage points on last month and has risen by 0.1 percentage po...

DEBT - One in four UK adults said the pandemic pushed them into debt.  Almost £10 billion of personal debt directly caused by furlough reducing incomes.  Furloughed employees saw debts rise by £1,050 on average as a result of loss of s...

JOBCENTRE PLUS - While jobcentres have remained open and fully operational throughout the pandemic for those who really need it, and Work Coaches have continued to support all their customers virtually – opening hours were temporarily shortened...

EASTER PAYMENTS - On Friday 2 April and Monday 5 April Jobcentre Plus offices and phone lines will be closed. To make sure people receive their payments on a day when Jobcentre Plus offices are open, arrangements have been made to make some paym...