Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Social Security (Contributions) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 and come into force on 14th March 2024.

Amendment of the Social Security (Contributions) Regulations 2001

2.  In Part 10 of Schedule 3 to the Social Security (Contributions) Regulations 2001 (payments to be disregarded in the calculation of earnings for the purposes of earnings-related contributions)( 3), after paragraph 27 insert—

“Group Litigation Order nominated individual compensation payments, onward payments of Post Office compensation payments, Post Office Process Review Scheme compensation payments and Suspension Remuneration Review compensation payments

28.— (1)  A payment made by the Department for Business and Trade to a nominated individual under the Group Litigation Order compensation scheme.

(2)  A payment that is a relevant onward payment of a—

(a) Group Litigation Order compensation scheme payment,

(b) Horizon Shortfall Scheme top-up payment made to a recipient of a compensation payment from the Horizon Shortfall Scheme for the purpose of topping-up that compensation payment to account for sums lost to tax,

(c) Suspension Remuneration Review compensation payment, or

(d) Post Office Process Review Scheme compensation payment.

(3)  A payment made by Post Office Limited under the Post Office Process Review Scheme.

(4)  A payment (including any top-up payment) made by Post Office Limited under the Suspension Remuneration Review.

(5)  In this paragraph—

“ Group Litigation Order compensation scheme ” means the scheme announced by His Majesty’s Government on 22 March 2022 with the objective of ensuring that persons who were party to a claim against Post Office Limited in respect of the Horizon system that was subject to a group litigation order have access to compensation for losses related to that system;

“ Horizon Shortfall Scheme ” has the same meaning as in paragraph 27(2);

“ the Horizon system ” has the same meaning as in paragraph 26(3);

“ nominated individual ” means any person who was a shareholder or a director of a company or a partner in a partnership which ceased to exist and was a party to a claim against Post Office Limited in respect of the Horizon system that was subject to a group litigation order;

“ Post Office Limited ” has the same meaning as in paragraph 26(3);

“ Post Office Process Review Scheme ” means the review established by Post Office Limited to provide redress to postmasters who were financially impacted by previous processes or policies in relation to balance discrepancies unrelated to the Horizon system;

“ relevant onward payment ” means a payment made by a company who receives a compensation payment, to an individual who is or was a director or employee of the company and it is reasonable to conclude from the circumstances that the payment is made by the company to the individual for the purpose of passing on all or part of the compensation payment to the individual;

“ Suspension Remuneration Review ” means the review established by Post Office Limited to provide redress to postmasters contracted to deliver Post Office services through branches who were suspended before March 2019 and did not receive remuneration during their period of suspension. ”.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Social Security (Contributions) Regulations 2001 ( S.I. 2001/1004) to provide that a payment under the Group Litigation Order compensation scheme to a nominated individual, relevant onward payments of Post Office compensation payments, Process Review Scheme compensation payments and Suspension Remuneration Review compensation payments will be disregarded in the calculation of earnings for the purpose of establishing liability to Class 1 National Insurance contributions.

Group Litigation Order compensation payments can be made by the Department for Business and Trade to a nominated individual who was a shareholder, director or partner of a company or partnership that has ceased to exist and was a party to a claim against Post Office Limited in respect of the Horizon system that was subject to a group litigation order.

Relevant onward payments are payments made by a company who is a recipient of a specified compensation payment to an individual who is or was a director or employee of that company for the purpose of passing on all or part of that compensation payment to that individual.

Process Review Scheme compensation payments are made by Post Office Limited to postmasters who were financially impacted by previous processes or policies in relation to balance discrepancies unrelated to the Horizon system.

Suspension Remuneration Review compensation payments are made by Post Office Limited to postmasters contracted to deliver Post Office services through branches who were suspended before March 2019 and did not receive remuneration during their period of suspension.

A Tax Information and Impact Note covering this instrument will be published on the website athttps://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tax-information-and-impact-notes-tiins.