A consultation on the draft regulations have been published by the Government. The regulations will give effect to powers enacted in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015.
The regulations will allow recovery of any exit payment that has been made should a high earner return to the public sector soon after leaving.
The regulations will undergo Parliamentary scrutiny, and the intention is that from April 2016 the policy will take effect.
There has been some modification to some of the elements by the government since the last public consultation primarily to ensure that the provisions to recover are fair and consistent.
Included in the changes are:
lowering the minimum earnings threshold for individuals subject to the recovery provisions from £100,000 to £80,000 applying the policy to qualifying returns to any part of the public sector, instead of only returns to the same part of the public sector the recovery amount will be reduced over time for a return at any point up to 12 months from exit and recovery will include employer funded pension ‘top up’ payments made under the Local Government Pension Scheme to align with the recovery of other similar payments.Listed within the draft regulations is a list of who are in scope and who are exempt within the public sector organisations.
