This issue is caused when one or more team members have an impossible lower earnings limit year to date (YTD). This value cannot be greater than the number of periods processed multiplied by the lower earnings limit (LEL).
Information on current LEL values is available on the GOV UK website.
Example Calculation
Note: This section uses values from the 2023/2024 tax year and does not take into account any LEL changes that may have taken effect since the time of writing.
In any given period, to work out what the LEL is, we take the relevant LEL value and multiply it by the number of periods:
LEL Allowance x Processed Periods
The table below provides an example of this calculation for both a weekly & monthly payroll:
Pay Frequency | LEL Value | Current Period / Week Number | Maximum LEL Value |
Monthly | £533 | 10 | £5,330 |
Weekly | £123 | 26 | £3,198 |
Resolve the issue
When the FPS fails to submit, you will be presented with any relevant error messages confirming the nature of the issue and which value is triggering the failure.
You will need to check your team members to identify which of those members have excessive LEL YTD values, and then correct them before reprocessing the payroll.
To correct the YTD information of a team member;
Click Team
Open the relevant team member record
Under Employment in the Year to Date section, click Edit
Update the Year to Date values, ensuring the LEL value does not exceed the maximum allowed
Save the changes
Repeat this process for each problematic team member record
Once you're satisfied the LEL YTD values do not exceed the maximum, you can reset and re-run the payroll.
If you require further assistance, please raise a case.