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SALARY EXCHANGE FOR PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS (SXP) AGENCY WORKER QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS (Q&A) This Q&A is applicable to all businesses, offices and operations within the gap personnel group, including: • • • • • •
gap personnel Holdings Limited – Company Reg – 3589208 gap personnel Holdings Limited t/a Hawk 3 Talent Solutions – Company Reg – 3589208 gap technical Limited – Company Reg – 5646432 gap personnel (TELFORD) LTD – company Reg – 13377649 Quattro Recruitment Limited – Company Reg – 7131120 Quattro Healthcare Ltd – Company Reg - 9389534
The Company pension provider is The People’s Pension. Save where you are engaged by Quattro Group Holdings Limited / Quattro Recruitment Limited / Quattro Healthcare Ltd the Pension Provider is Nest This document contains common “Questions & Answers” that you may have regarding Salary Exchange for Pension Contributions (SXP). If your question is not covered by the information below, please contact your Agency. WHAT IS SXP? SXP is a modern, cost effective and common way of making pension contributions. It is designed to save National Insurance costs for both workers and employers. Under SXP you exchange some entitlement to gross pay for increased agency/employer pension contributions. For these purposes, whilst we are not your employer, we are required to make employer pension contributions for your benefit. The changes under SXP provide National Insurance savings for you and your agency. The level of contributions to the pension scheme remains the same in total, and there is no change in the pension scheme provider. SXP just allows you to benefit from the reduction in your National Insurance deductions and improvement in net pay. IS SXP COMPLIANT, I.E. DOES SXP CONFORM TO HMRC PRACTICE? Yes, most “employers” in the UK use SXP. We sought professional advice and expertise from Dains Accountants on implementation of SXP. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is familiar and comfortable with SXP as long as it is implemented correctly. DOES SXP IMPACT MY TERMS AND CONDITIONS? Yes, SXP requires a slight change in your contract for services so that your entitlement to pay is reduced but your entitlement to agency (“employer”) pension contributions is increased by a corresponding amount. The overall effect of this change reduces the National Insurance you pay and increases your net take home pay. HOW MUCH NATIONAL INSURANCE DO I SAVE WITH SXP? The amount you save depends on your level of pay, level of pension contributions and the percentage at which you pay National Insurance. Most workers pay National Insurance at 8% (correct for 2024/25) and their saving is the amount they exchange under SXP multiplied by this percentage. Those who do not pay National Insurance, perhaps because their earnings are insufficient or because they are over state pension age, will not make any saving. Your saving is also determined by the amount you earn above the National Minimum Wage. This is because we can only exchange pay you have above the National Minimum Wage for additional agency pension contributions. HOW DOES MY PAYSLIP DIFFER WITH SXP? When SXP is operating, we still show the value of pay before the change to terms and conditions on the payslip. We call this your “Reference Pay”. Including it helps you to check that we have calculated your pay correctly from the hours that you’ve worked. But the amounts will no longer be your contractual entitlement. From these amounts, you will see a pay reduction shown on your payslip as “Salary Exchange – Pension”, which is the amount you agree, and are legally able, to exchange for additional agency pension contributions, but you will also see higher take home pay on your payslip. Please see the end of this document for illustrations showing the “before” and “after” effects of SXP on your payslip. WILL SXP IMPACT PROPERTY RENTALS OR MORTGAGE APPLICATIONS? Where financial references are required by our agency workers, for example for the purposes of renting a property or obtaining a mortgage, we will ensure that the rate of “Reference Pay” is communicated and SXP explained to illustrate the improvement in net pay. You will find that most people understand SXP and have a good appreciation of the benefits. IS ANYONE INELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE IN SXP? Most workers are eligible to participate in SXP to some extent, but we do exclude some workers automatically where the law requires us to or where we believe they will not enjoy a benefit. Workers that are in receipt of statutory payments; e.g. SSP, SMP, SPP, SAP, will be excluded from SXP during the period of statutory pay. Without SXP, worker pension contributions required by auto-enrolment will be deducted from pay. Once normal pay continues, workers will automatically be reinstated into SXP. Any worker that has already opted out of the Pension will also be ineligible. HOW DOES SXP AFFECT THE PAYMENT OF NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE (NMW)? The law requires us to ensure that all workers earn at a rate of no less than NMW. As agency pension contributions are not treated as pay for the purposes of NMW, it is important that your adjusted pay, i.e. after the reduction for SXP, does not fall below the NMW. We carefully check the amount of your pay above NMW and ensure that only pay above NMW is exchanged for pension contributions. If this isn’t at your full pension contribution level, the balance of your pension contribution will be deducted in the ‘pre SXP’ way so that the total amount paid to your pension is exactly the same.
gap personnel Holdings Limited – CR - 03589208 – GLAA – CAST0004 gap technical Limited – CR - 5646432 Quattro Recruitment Limited – CR - 7131120 – GLAA – QUAT0001 Talent Invest Limited – CR – 05104902
BeNext UK Holdings Limited – CR – 8044442 Quattro Group Holdings Limited – CR 9508069 Quattro Healthcare Limited – CR – 09389534 gap personnel (Telford) Limited – 13377649 – GLAA – GAPP0008GLAA