Less than 3 months later, the government have revoked the provisions.
The aim of the Regulations was to prevent excessive payments being paid to departing employees in the public sector. After a review of the cap was undertaken, the government have concluded that the imposition of the cap has resulted in unintended consequences. They effectively found that long serving, middle ranking individuals were adversely affected, not just high flying executives. This was because the amount of any redundancy payment along with any pension shortfall payment would quite often exceed this figure. It was unclear how the payment was to be divided in such circumstances and the risk of litigation was substantial. Therefore, the government have decided that the Regulations should be revoked.
An HM Treasury Direction has been introduced which will disapply the cap until the Regulations are formally revoked.
According to government guidance, employees affected by the cap should contact their former employers and directly request to be paid what they would have been paid had the cap not been in place.
According to government guidance, employers are now encouraged to pay additional sums to any former employee affected, if the employee:
If the above applies, the former employer should pay the former employee the additional sums that would have been paid to them had the cap not been applied in the first place. Employers should note that HM Treasury have an expectation that the former employers will do this.
For further information, please visit:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-public-sector-exit-payments
If you would like any further information, please contact Sabrina Rahman on 0114 228 3262 or sabrina.rahman@luptonfawcett.law or another member of the employment law team.
Please note this information is provided by way of example and may not be complete and is certainly not intended to constitute legal advice. You should take bespoke advice for your circumstances.
Remember you can still call us on 0333 323 5292 or email us at law@luptonfawcett.law