From 1 April, National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates are increasing.
The rate is rising to £12.71 for workers aged 21 and over, with other bands increasing too. That means you need to make sure your staff are paid the correct rate for every hour they work. If it’s off, even slightly, it can lead to underpayments, back pay, and potential fines.
So, ahead of the April change, we want to ask you two important questions: are your hours right, and are your people being paid correctly?
Here’s how PASS helps you check both with confidence (without the second guessing) ✅.
1. Check actual hours worked, not planned hours
NMW is based on what someone actually worked, not what was scheduled.
PASS records real visit times through the PASSforcare app. Carers tag in and out, and those times go straight into the timesheet. As a manager, you can quickly review:
- if someone started late or finished early
- if a visit ran over
- if a tag is missing
If something looks off, you can fix it there and then. This means when you get to payroll, you are working from accurate hours, not estimates.
2. Include travel and gaps between visits
A shift is not just visit time. Travel between visits and short gaps also affect how much someone should be paid.
PASS shows this clearly on the timesheet.
Travel time is calculated between visits. Waiting time is added where it applies. Breaks are handled based on your settings. When you review a shift, you can see:
- total time worked across the day
- how much of that is visit time vs travel
- whether there are long gaps or tight schedules
This helps you sense-check if someone’s day looks right before you process pay.
Quick tip: You can use the auto-verify timesheet feature to automatically approve any visit that was completed successfully.
3. Compare pay to the correct NMW rate
Once hours are correct, the next step is checking pay.
PASS uses each employee’s date of birth to apply the correct NMW rate automatically. It then compares that rate to what they were actually paid. The NMW report shows you:
- what each person was paid
- what they should have been paid based on their hours and age
- where a top-up may be needed
It also flags missing details, like date of birth, so you can fix them before they cause issues.
Instead of checking everything manually, you can go straight to the people or shifts that need attention.
Bonus tip: Keep it part of your weekly routine
The easiest way to stay on top of NMW is to check it regularly. Review timesheets. Check a few shifts in detail. Run the NMW report before payroll.
PASS keeps all of this in one place, so you can do those checks quickly and move forward with confidence.
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Stay on top of the National Minimum Wage, without the stress
See how PASS helps you track real hours, check pay against the latest rates, and spot issues early. Everything sits in one place, so you can review, adjust, and run payroll with confidence.
