A widespread issue has been identified where systems automatically drop pension contributions for staff on maternity leave because their earnings have decreased. Legally, these contributions should often remain based on gross pre-maternity salary.
This is a prolific problem across major platforms like Xero, Sage, and BrightPay. It is vital for accountancy firms to manually verify these calculations to ensure compliance and support their team members correctly.
Payroll providers will surely be keen to patch this, and in fact it sounds like Employment Hero are already on the case:
"This is a really important issue because small errors can have long-term impacts on someone’s retirement savings. Employment Hero includes an employer pension protection setting that users can apply during SMP where needed. We’re continually looking for ways to make these settings easier to understand and apply."