Legislation for the 2024/2025 tax year

Summary

Details of payroll legislation for the 2024/2025 tax year.

Description

This article explains what the changes are happening in the new tax year.

Resolution

National minimum/living wage rates

The following rates are effective from 1 April 2024.

Age	Hourly Rate (£)
21 and older	11.44
18 - 20	8.60
16 - 17	6.40
Apprenticeship	Paying apprentices the correct national minimum wage >

PAYE

Tax codes

The emergency tax code for the 2024/25 tax year remains at 1257L, and there are no automatic uplifts in tax codes. To find out more, read our article Update an employees' tax code.

The tables below show the bandwidths for the rest of the UK, Scotland and Wales.

Rest of UK Bandwidths & Rates

From (£)	To (£)	Rate (%)	Band
0.01	37,700.00	20.00	Basic rate
37,700.01	125,140.00	40.00	Higher rate
125,140.01	excess	45.00	Additional rate

Scottish Bandwidths & Rates

From (£)	To (£)	Rate (%)	Band
0.01	2,306.00	19.00	Starter rate
2,306.01	13,991.00	20.00	Basic rate
13,991.01	31,092.00	21.00	Intermediate rate
31,092.01	62,430.00	42.00	Higher rate
62,430.01	125,140.00	45.00	Advanced rate
125,140.01	excess	48.00	Top rate

Welsh Bandwidths & Rates

From (£)	To (£)	Rate (%)	Band
0.01	37,700.00	20.00	Basic rate
37,700.01	125,140.00	40.00	Higher rate
125,140.01	excess	45.00	Additional rate

Tax relief for childcare

	Basic Rate (£)	High Rate (£)	Higher Rate (£)
Weekly	55.00	28.00	25.00
Monthly	243.00	124.00	110.00
Annually	2,915.00	1,484.00	1,325.00

National Insurance

Earnings bands

	Weekly (£)	Monthly (£)	Yearly (£)
Lower Earnings Limit (LEL)	123.00	533.00	6,396.00
Primary Threshold (PT)	242.00	1,048.00	12,570.00
Secondary Threshold (ST)	175.00	758.00	9,100.00
Freeport/Investment Zone Upper Secondary Threshold (FUST)	481.00	2,083.00	25,000.00
Upper Earnings Limit (UEL)	967.00	4,189.00	50,270.00
Upper Secondary Threshold (UST)	967.00	4,189.00	50,270.00
Apprentice Upper Secondary Threshold (AUST)	967.00	4,189.00	50,270.00
Veterans Upper Secondary Threshold (VUST)	967.00	4,189.00	50,270.00

NI Category A Rates

Visit our handy guide to view all class 1 National Insurance rates for 2024/2025 tax year.

NOTE: The Spring Budget 2024 changed the main Employee NI rate from 10% down to 8%. This is reflected in the table below.

	Employee Rate (%)	Employer Rate (%)	Director rate (%)
LEL up to ST	0.00	0.00	0.0
ST to PT	0.00	13.80	0.0
PT to FUST	8.00	13.80	8.00
FUST to UEL/UST/AUST/VUST	8.00	13.80	8.00
Excess of UEL/UST/AUST/VUST	2.00	13.80	2.00

Directors Annual Primary Threshold

The pro-rated Primary Threshold for the Director annual NICs calculation is £12,570.

Class 1A Rates

For termination payments the Class 1A rate is 13.8%.

Statutory payments

The Statutory payments rates are changing from 6 April 2024.

Statutory sick pay

Employees on weekly earnings greater than or equal to the Lower Earnings Limit have entitlement to a statutory weekly rate of £116.75 from 6 April 2024.

New statutory sick pay rates:

Unrounded daily rates	Number of working days in week	1 day to pay	2 days to pay	3 days to pay	4 days to pay	5 days to pay	6 days to pay	7 days to pay
£16.6785	7	£16.68	£33.36	£50.04	£66.72	£83.40	£100.08	£116.75
£19.4583	6	£19.46	£38.92	£58.38	£77.84	£97.30	£116.75
£23.3500	5	£23.35	£46.70	£70.05	£93.40	£116.75
£29.1875	4	£29.19	£58.38	£87.57	£116.75
£38.9166	3	£38.92	£77.84	£116.75
£58.3750	2	£58.38	£116.75
£116.750	1	£116.75

Parental pay and leave

The rates below come into effect from the first Sunday in April.

NOTE: For babies born from 6th April, Maternity Pay can be applied to both male and female employees.
Paternity pay can be taken up to 52 weeks after the birth or placement of a child.

New Parental pay and leave rates:

Payment	Higher rate %	The standard rate is the lesser of: £	or, %	Weeks at higher rate	Weeks at Standard rate
Statutory Maternity Pay	90.00	184.03	90.00	6	33
Statutory Adoption Pay	90.00	184.03	90.00	6	33
Statutory Paternity Pay	N/A	184.03	90.00	N/A	2
Shared Parental Pay	N/A	184.03	90.00	N/A	37
Parental Bereavement	N/A	184.03	90.00	N/A	2

Automatic enrolment

Auto enrolment thresholds are unchanged for the 2024/25 tax year.

Pay reference period	Lower level of qualifying earnings	Earnings trigger for automatic enrolment	Qualifying Earnings upper limit
1 Week	£120.00	£192.00	£967.00
Fortnight	£240.00	£384.00	£1,934.00
4 weeks	£480.00	£768.00	£3,867.00
1 month	£520.00	£833.00	£4,189.00
Annual	£6,240.00	£10,000.00	£50,270.00

Contribution rates

The minimum Employer contribution remains at 3%.

The total minimum contribution remains at 8%.

Student loans

When you set up a student loan deduction for an employee, you must specify whether they're on Plan 1, Plan 2 or Plan 4.

Type	Weekly £	Monthly £	Annual £	Rate %
Plan Type 1	480.57	2,082.50	24,990.00	9.00
Plan Type 2	524.90	2,274.58	27,295.00	9.00
Plan Type 4	603.75	2,616.25	31,395.00	9.00

Postgraduate loans

Type	Weekly £	Monthly £	Annual £	Rate %
Standard	403.84	1,750.00	21,000.00	6.00

Employment allowance

For the 2024/25 tax year, Employment allowance is £5,000.

Small Employers Relief (SER)

There's no change to SER rates for the 2024/2025 tax year. To find out more, read our article Small Employers Relief.

Apprenticeship Levy

The Apprenticeship Levy Allowance is set to £15,000.

The Apprenticeship Levy Rate is set to 0.5%.

Attachment of earnings orders

Where attachment of earnings orders use rates to calculate deductions, your software includes these rates and applies them automatically.

There are no changes to thresholds or rates for the 2024/2025 tax year.

NHS Pensions bands

The following earnings tiers and contribution rates apply from 1 April 2024.

Tier	Pensionable pay from	Pensionable pay to	Employee contribution rate	Employer contribution rate (non-medical school)	Employer contribution rate (medical school)
1	£0.00	£13,246.99	5.2%	14.3%*	14.76%*
2	£13,247.00	£25,146.99	6.5%	14.3%*	14.76%*
3	£25,147.00	£30,638.99	8.3%	14.3%*	14.76%*
4	£30,639.00	£45,996.99	9.8%	14.3%*	14.76%*
5	£45,997.00	£58,972.99	10.7%	14.3%*	14.76%*
6	£58,973.00	And above	12.5%	14.3%*	14.76%*

*The actual Employer contribution rate is 23.7%, but the NHS Business Service Authority will only collect 14.3% from employers or 14.76% from medical schools. This tops up by 9.4% for employers or 8.94% for medical schools by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care.