Add a payslip comment for the Health and Social Care Levy

CAUTION: On 22 September 2022 the Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced changes to National Insurance, and the Health & Social Care Levy. To read more, please click this link November 2022 changes to National Insurance and Health & Social Care Levy >

What has changed?

• From April 2022, national insurance contributions(NICs) are increasing by 1.25% for one year only for employees, employers and the self-employed. This increase is included in the legislation tables of Sage 50 Payroll v28.
  NOTE: Following the Government's 22 September 2022 announcement, NICs will reduce by 1.25% from 6 November 2022.
• From April 2023, NI returns to the current rate and HMRC will collect the extra tax as a new Health and Social Care Levy
  NOTE: Following the Government's 22 September 2022 announcement, the implementation of the Health and Social Care Levy has been cancelled.

HMRC has issued advice that between 6 April 2022 to 5 April 2023, employers should consider adding a message to employee payslips to explain what funds from the NI increase are being used for.

HMRC's request to add the comment is not mandatory, and employers can choose whether or not to add this to explain the increase in NI to employees.

What you need to do

First, you'll need to decide if you will add a message to your employee's payslips to explain the increase to NI contributions.

NOTE: If you choose not to add this message to your employee's payslips no further action is required. 

The comment HMRC advises you add to payslips is:

1.25% uplift in NICs funds NHS, health & social care

If you decide to add or remove a comment to your payslips, you can do this using the steps below.

Add a comment to your employees' records

In v28 of Sage 50 Payroll for the 2022/2023 tax year, all payslip layouts and all online payslip services include any text in the Payslip Comment field of your employee's records. This is where you can add your payslip message for it to appear on payslips.

Your message can easily be added to either individual employees, or to a group of employees at once in v28. Let's look at the steps now.

Add a comment to individual employees

1. Double click the required employee record.
2. Click the Analysis tab.
3. Under the Electronic Documents section, click in the Payslip Comment box.
4. Enter 1.25% uplift in NICs funds NHS, health & social care and click Save, then click Close.

Add comments to multiple employees at once

1. Select the required employees on your employee list.
2. Click Tasks, then click Global Changes.
3. Click Electronic Documents, then click Set Payslip Comments.
4. Enter 1.25% uplift in NICs funds NHS, health & social care.
5. Click OK, then click Yes.
6. A message appears confirming the number of employees updated, click OK.

The comment will now show on the payslip for each employee record you updated.

How do remove a comment from your employees' records?

To remove a payslip comment, follow the steps in, Remove a payslip comment added for the Health & Social Care Levy.