Benefits

Employers and employees alike may benefit from substituting part of the employee's wages with various forms of payment in kind. This is because a large employer may be able to use its bulk spending power to buy insurance or vehicles more cheaply than an individual. Also, the tax treatment of certain benefits in kind is more beneficial to the employee than of payments in cash. The employer may also choose to provide the employee with more generous rights than the statutory minimum, for example to offer a contractual benefit of more days of paid holiday entitlement than is required under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR 1998), SI 1998/1833.

Statutory paid holiday

Holiday benefits both employers and workers by allowing workers a period of relaxation and recuperation and holiday entitlement is often perceived as a key benefit by many employees.

WTR 1998, SI 1998/1833 (which implements Directive 2003/88/EC, the Working Time Directive and so is assimilated law—see Practice Note: Assimilated law) provides workers with a statutory entitlement to paid holiday. The right is to a total of 5.6 weeks' annual leave each 'leave year', made

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Right to work guidance updated on Digital Verification Service checks

The Home Office has issued an updated version of its ‘Employer’s guide to right to work checks’ document, with the changes primarily related to simplifying the information on digital checks for employers of British and Irish citizens who have a valid passport (or Irish passport card). The new version has removed various technical details which were previously intended for providers of these digital verification services, and revised the relevant terminology, so that ‘Digital Verification Service (DVS)’ now includes both the terms Identity Service Providers (IDSPs) and Identity Document Validation Technology (IDVT). This is stated to align the guidance with the terminology used in the UK digital identity and attributes framework and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025. Guidance and requirements specifically for DVS are now set out in a separate, supplementary code for digital right to work checks. The relevant guidance for employers has been revised. Although it is not currently mandatory for employers to use a DVS certified against the ‘trust framework’ and the supplementary code, this position will change ‘in the near future’, and it will become mandatory to use a DVS listed on the register of certified DVS (maintained by the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes (OfDIA)). In other changes, the new version reiterates that an original expired BRP is not proof of a right to work, and instead an online check must be taken. It also confirms that short-term entry clearance vignettes are being phased out, and that increasingly persons recently issued entry clearance will only have their eVisa to rely on for these purposes, so will need to create a UKVI account as soon as possible and can do this from overseas. In relation to asylum seekers with a pending claim, the guidance now states that they can also volunteer whilst their claim is considered without being granted permission to work, but they can only carry out 'paid' work if they have been granted permission to work under the Immigration Rules, Part 11, paras 360 or 360C. Previously the reference in our quotation marks to ‘paid’ work stated ‘voluntary’ work

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