Annual Survey of Hours & Earnings

Has anyone else received the Annual Survey of Hours & Earnings?

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A client has received the Annual Survey of Hours & Earnings (ASHE) 2023 from the Office for National Statistics to fill in for one of the three directors on the payroll who is on a very small wage.  I've never come across the survey before, and it's a right pain in the neck to complete.  It looks to me almost like a fishing expedition regarding national minimum wage.  Has anyone else received this survey recently, or in the past? It seems a complete waste of time to me.

Replies (19)

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By ireallyshouldknowthisbut
27th Apr 2023 16:36

Best bet is dont engage. If you never fill it in, they will stop asking.

Fill it in like a good boy on time and you will get 'em all the time, and loads more too.

Other tactic is to send it in, but several weeks late. They tend not to ask again.

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Replying to ireallyshouldknowthisbut:
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By bluebaron
27th Apr 2023 17:05

Unfortunately there's a legal obligation to complete the survey, or the risk of penalties. I'm tempted to send it in late though!

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By ireallyshouldknowthisbut
27th Apr 2023 17:18

There has always been a legal obligation but I find its something that can easily slip the mind.

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By Wanderer
27th Apr 2023 17:38

Popular advice has always been to do exactly what ireally suggests.

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By Barbara G
27th Apr 2023 17:18

Yes, I get quite a few every year, usually for the same employees. They are a bit of a pain to complete, but when you get used to them they usually take no more than half an hour. I think it is a legal obligation right enough. We've never had come back on any of them. But I agree, they are a nuisance when you're busy with far more important things to do.

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By bluebaron
27th Apr 2023 17:22

Yes, unfortunately it looks like the same employee is going to be picked on each year now.

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By Hugo Fair
27th Apr 2023 18:55

And, although there are supposed to be 'Chinese walls' between depts ... if "it looks like a fishing expedition regarding national minimum wage" then that could be because HMRC have just been given extra powers/funds to go after exactly that.

Oh and one of their favourite targets is salaried staff for whom there are inadequate 'hours worked' records!

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By Barbara G
27th Apr 2023 19:09

I'm from Northern Ireland, where we have the Department of Finance (only relevant in NI, I've had this queried before) issuing Quarterly Business Surveys and Business Register and Employment Surveys. Both have similar questions, yet separate surveys are required to be completed. We get emails advising that the surveys are due in a few weeks, then emails advising that the due date is approaching, then emails if a survey is late. So 3 emails for every one survey. We've at least 20 clients who receive these surveys. So one Christmas we had around 120 emails to deal with about completion of surveys. Two of the quarters they fall due are in December, when we're busy trying to get through all our work before Christmas, and March, when we're also busy with payroll year ends. Not much fun

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By spilly
28th Apr 2023 00:25

My sister used to work at the ONS. There is absolutely no correlation or collaboration with HMRC at all on any of these surveys.
It is purely a fact-finding exercise about income and the participants are selected on a random basis.
Yes, there is a legal requirement to complete them, and you are likely to receive them for that person for about the next 3 years.
The ONS do have a dropout ratio, so if you don’t respond, it could be because the overall proportion of respondents is still ok.

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By bluebaron
28th Apr 2023 08:59

Thanks, that's useful to know.

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By Hugo Fair
28th Apr 2023 12:32

"There is absolutely no correlation or collaboration with HMRC at all on any of these surveys" ... is only partially true.
They certainly don't share confidential data items ... but HMRC are one of the many 'stakeholders' in the survey results - and so will be consulted whenever there is an opportunity to add (or drop) data items from the next collection.

That's all I meant by my slightly snide "there are supposed to be 'Chinese walls' between depts" - i.e. HMRC and others can & do 'influence' the questions to be asked (in order to assist them prioritisation of possible targets for compliance activity).

BTW if you ever want to experience the sensation of being universally hated ... get yourself invited onto the Change Review board for one of these national quango's and ask all the stakeholders to justify the currently collected data items (in terms of how they are subsequently used and with what quantifiable benefit). Last time I did this I was nearly lynched (by Govt Dept and Union apparatchiks alike)!

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By spilly
28th Apr 2023 18:21

Yes, lots of data collected but not all of it useful or used!

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By Tax Dragon
28th Apr 2023 06:27

Surely the legal obligation is on (and the decision as to whether to comply lies with) the client and the information has to be provided by the client? If you letters of engagement say you will fill them in on clients' behalves, perhaps you ought to consider sending new ones. It's hardly a tax or accounting matter.

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By tom123
28th Apr 2023 08:02

I took the question to be about a member of the practice staff..

I've always had many many ONS surveys to do over the years - they are quite common in manufacturing sectors for example.

I've had this survey at the school I now work at - took 15 minutes looking at payroll to do it.

I'll admit to sometimes losing them in the past - but, on the whole, have usually sent them in.

What I don't do is painstakingly keep a copy of all the returns for year after year.

A lot of the surveys allow for "estimates", so I did do.

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By Tax Dragon
28th Apr 2023 09:00

bluebaron wrote:

A client has received...

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By tom123
28th Apr 2023 10:02

Like all good students I should have read the question!

As to whether the client has to do this or the adviser, depends on whether the adviser runs the payroll or not..

Chargeability depends on engagement letter.

But - as the legal responsibility is on the client I guess the adviser cannot unilaterally just ignore.

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By bluebaron
28th Apr 2023 11:13

I do the payroll. I've completed the survey, and checked some of the answers with the client.

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By Hugo Fair
28th Apr 2023 12:23

What's done is done ... but FWIW I concur with TD's earlier comment:
"Surely the legal obligation is on (and the decision as to whether to comply lies with) the client and the information has to be provided by the client?"

So, irrespective of who does the work to come up with some numbers, the survey should be 'completed by' and returned by the employer ... to whom presumably it was issued by ONS.

Over the course of 25+ years, and thousands of payrolls, the only ONS surveys that I completed/submitted were for my own company.
I was happy for us to provide interpretation of the requirements (and advice on how to obtain the figures from our software) to clients - typically for no extra charge - but our T&Cs made explicit the difference between the services we provided and the ultimate liability of the client.

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By tltodman
28th Apr 2023 12:14

A client I do the payroll for gets one for the same staff member every year.
As it happens they contacted me today for the info they need to complete the form.
An irritating inconvenience but doesn't take too long to provide - just info from April payrun and last year's P60.

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