Thank you for your request for information about the following:

1 Does ESR allocate members on Half Sick Pay to the contribution rate based on actual pay received?

2 Who is responsible for refunding overpaid member pension contributions?

3 If an employee’s payslip is released early showing they will be underpaid, does ESR have the functionality to correct the error before payday?

4 If an employee has inaccurate information returned to HMRC in a Full Payment Submission (FPS), does ESR have the functionality to report a correction to HMRC? If so, please describe the process?

5 If an employee is underpaid on payday, does ESR have the functionality to report an additional payment to HMRC on or before the date the payment is made? If so, please describe the process

6 If wages are paid shortly after payday due to a payroll error, but not reported in a supplementary pay run, does ESR have the functionality to attribute the late payment to the tax period in which it was paid or can it only be attributed to the tax period it is reported?

7 What is the default payment date recorded on the FPS for both main & supplementary payroll runs?

8 Is it possible to manually override the payment date reported in an FPS on ESR?

9 Are ESR users issued advice or guidance on what payment date to record on an FPS? If so, please provide a copy

10 Please confirm whether NHS ESR is aware that the DWP use the information provided to HMRC in the FPS to determine an employee’s entitlement to Universal Credit?

11 Has NHS ESR ever issued advice or guidance to users on how late or inaccurate payroll reporting can negatively impact on employees’ entitlement to Universal Credit? If so, please provide a copy

12 Are all functions described in the ESR User Manual available to all employing authorities & payroll providers? If not, how are restrictions determined?

13 Does NHS ESR endorse the restriction of any function of ESR?

Finally, 2 questions in addition to my unsuccessful online submission: 14 If an employee goes on long term sick leave with an injury determined to be fully or mainly attributable to their work in March 2022 (s22.3 of AfC) and goes on to half sick pay in October 2022, does ESR calculate Injury Allowance as 85% of salary based on the 2021/2022 pay scale throughout the absence or does the calculation increase in line with the relevant pay point (i.e., are staff in receipt of injury allowance entitled to regular enhancements, including the NHS Pay Award)?

Your request was received on 12th May and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

A copy of the information is attached. Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data.

1. Half Sick Pay would not be a trigger to amend the employee’s pension contribution rate in ESR.

2. The Employer that the individual works for is responsible for these refunds.

3. Not before pay day. Updates would be made on or after payday via a supplementary payroll run.

4. It would depend on what the error is and what would be required to rectify it.

5. Not before pay day. Updates would be made on or after payday via a supplementary payroll run.

6. It would be the tax period it is reported.

7. It would be the Normal Payment Date which is determined by the Tax Period and Payroll Frequency.

8. Yes, however the payment date can only be amended prior to the FPS being submitted for processing.

9. Yes. Guidance is included in the user communications for payroll schedules.

10. Yes, NHS ESR is aware.

11. This information is included in the PAYE Best Practice Guide, along with reminders that are included in the user communications for payroll schedules.

12. Yes, all functions described in the ESR User Manual are available to all employing authorities & payroll providers.

13. No, ESR does not endorse the restriction of any function of ESR.

14. The injury allowance looks at the current period earnings to see if they fall below 85% of the normal salary.

Please note that this request and our response is published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01168

Data Queries

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The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement: “NHSBSA Copyright 2023” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/