Employee Ownership and Save as You Earn: Coronavirus

(asked on 21st October 2020) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on employee participation levels in (a) Save As You Earn and (b) Share Incentive Plan schemes.


Answered by
Jesse Norman Portrait
Jesse Norman
This question was answered on 2nd November 2020

The Government wants to promote employee share ownership in the UK, which is why it offers tax advantaged employee share schemes such as Save As You Earn (SAYE) and Share Incentive Plans (SIPs).

Employers can offer these schemes to share financial rewards with staff who choose to take part. This supports recruitment and retention and helps to encourage employee productivity. The Government keeps all the employee share schemes under review.

In 2018/19, 310,000 employees were granted share options under a SAYE scheme, and around 2.84 million employees were awarded or purchased partnership shares under a SIP.

Information on the employee share schemes for the 2020/21 tax year will not be available until 2021. However, the Government has taken steps to support employees in a SIP or SAYE scheme through the COVID-19 outbreak. This includes extending the payment holiday terms for employees in SAYE plans where the employee is furloughed, has had working hours reduced or has taken unpaid leave during the pandemic, and allowing furlough payments to constitute as salary so SIP contributions can continue to be deducted from these payments.

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