Dear Subscriber,

Merry Christmas to you all!

Exclusive Human Resources would like to wish every single one of our readers a very Merry Christmas and we hope you have enjoyed 2007 as much as we have enjoyed launching our ‘Exclusive’ brand of HR consultancy and HR recruitment across the North East!

Unlike past editions of ‘HR News and Views’, this month we are delivering to your inbox a fresh, condensed, Christmas version, just enough to keep you topped up over the festive period till our full, features laden edition returns in January.

On January 22nd 2008 we are proud to be sponsoring the CIPD, Eversheds Employment Law update event to be held at the Vermont Hotel in Newcastle. Networking and buffet start at 6pm. We hope you can join us at this very popular event.

Next month we have a rare treat, an article on TUPE by Simon Goldberg, a Barrister specialising in employment law and a full commentary by Jonathon Stokes, a solicitor practicing in the fields of employment law and commercial litigation, and all for free! We will also be picking up on our regular salary survey insight and our ‘Meet the Associate’ feature.

If the Exclusive Human Resources team have worked with you in 2007 – thank you, and if not, we look forward to working with you in 2008!

Best wishes

Mark Ions - Director

www.exclusivehr.com

Following on from Novembers edition we received some very interesting, topical questions from readers relating to reward and benefits so we decided to put them to an expert. Dave Gibson is an Accountant and Business Advisor for Tax Assist and answers as follows:

Q : Over the Christmas period, some of my employees are required to be on call 24 hrs per day, and consequently use their personal mobile phones to make business calls. How should I reimburse these employees for the cost of the business calls they make?

A : Where this is the case, Class 1 NIC and tax are payable though PAYE if you;

1. Reimburse the cost of the mobile telephone, service charges or the cost of private calls
2. Provide the employee with a voucher for use in relation to the mobile telephone or private calls made on it.

Where you reimburse the costs incurred by an employee in making business calls only on his or her own mobile telephone, you can ask for a dispensation from the HMRC. If you do not have a dispensation you must return the full cost you have incurred on reimbursing the calls on form P11D at section O. No Class 1 or Class 1A NIC is payable. The employee can then apply to the HMRC to advise that the payment is for expenditure incurred in the course of their employment and claim a refund for tax paid on this.

An alternative option for the future is to provide these employees with a mobile telephone and enter into a service agreement with the telephone company. Then there would be no liability for NIC or tax. This applies to the provision of the telephone, the service and all calls.

Q : One of my full-time employees has recently switched to part time hours due to family commitments. She is concerned that this change may affect her entitlement to the basic state pension and other state benefits. Is this the case?

A : Assuming your employee earns more than £100 per week on these new hours, no change to her entitlement will occur as she will continue to pay Class 1 National Insurance contributions on her earnings.

For each week that your employee earns between £87 (the lower earnings limit) and £100 (the primary threshold) during the 2007/08 tax year, she will be treated as paying National Insurance contributions even though no contributions are deducted from her pay. This means that she will continue to build up entitlement to contributory benefits such as the basic State Pension and Incapacity Benefit, even though she is not paying standard rate National Insurance contributions.

However, if she earns less than the lower earnings limit, she will not pay National Insurance contributions and will not receive credit for state pension and benefit purposes either. She may still be able to protect her entitlement to the basic State Pension if she pays NI class 3 voluntary contributions, gets certain benefits or if she is a carer who receives Home Responsibilities Protection.

If you have any questions you would like put to Dave for January's edition please email me directly.

TaxAssist Accountants are the accountancy and tax service for small business. They are the largest national network of accountants, looking after some 24,000 businesses. Based in North Shields Dave can be contacted on 0191 258 7676.

One NorthEast’s Regional Image team are celebrating the close of 2007 by launching a brand new ‘Passionate people. Passionate places’ website. The revamped site, found at www.northeastengland.co.uk, features cutting-edge web TV technology, showing North East England has to offer in the key areas of ‘Business’ and ‘Leisure & Tourism’. The site also includes full details on how your organisation can ‘Support the Region’ by becoming involved in the ‘Passionate people. Passionate places’ Regional Image campaign. For more information please visit www.northeastengland.co.uk

Next Month:

For more information and to find out how you can benefit from the campaign, please visit here or call 0191 229 6924.

Iain Ramsey, The Regional Image team, One NorthEast

Any idea how many calories the average person consumes on Christmas Day? Go on, have guess.... Well, the answer is about 6,000 – three times as many as they would on a normal day. And what we put into our mouths on this auspicious occasion more or less sums up the 21st century diet.

First, there’s the crispy skin from the turkey, juicy stuffing, butter-laden vegetables, and the cream on the trifle. Way too much saturated fat. And not only does that put you at an increased risk of coronary heart disease, it makes weight control so much more difficult as well.

Next, there’s one mince pie too many, a mound of chocolate, a bowlful of Christmas pudding and a slab of icing-clad cake. Just perfect for a mood-swinging sugar rush. As with fat, foods high in sugar tend to be high in calories. And they come at the expense of vitamins and minerals, too, so are far less nutritious. Plus, tooth decay is directly linked to sugar consumption.

Finally, we have the pile of mini-sausages, streaky bacon rolls, and crisps and nuts to nibble on at random. A massive salt overload. Too much salt in the diet is linked to an increase in blood pressure, which increases our risk of heart disease and strokes. Not to mention the fuzzy thinking and lethargy from being dehydrated.

And of course don’t forget the surfeit of festive alcohol, which stimulates our appetites, frees us from our inhibitions and make us gobble even more. No wonder we put on an average of 5lbs over the festive period.

But it’s Christmas after all. So eat, drink and be merry – for next year we diet.

Claire Hedley BSc MA Chartered FCIPD is a Personal Wellness Coach specialising in personalised weight loss and wellness programmes. If you want help to shed the post-Christmas pounds,  call her on 07913 944708, email or review her website. 

HR Consultant - Carlisle

Based in Carlisle, this is an exclusive vacancy for the Exclusive Human Resources team.

We are looking to recruit an HR Consultant for a 9 month maternity cover to start in early 2008.

The successful candidate will be delivering services to a specific client group.

To read all about this exciting opportunity please click here or to review all of our current vacancies please click here or call 0191 438 7989

We hope you have found this newsletter informative, helpful and enjoyable. If you have any suggestions on future articles or indeed you would like to contribute please email us directly.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!