Payment Gateway Explainer 2
Dear Employer,
The focus of this series of Explainers is what you can expect on 13 August, when the Payment Gateway is activated. This is the second detailed explanation, to prepare you for the implementation of the Payment Gateway on 13 August. Do refer to the website if you have either missed the previous 2 explanations in this series, or if you have a new administrator in your team. Previous communications in this series were sent on 04 and 11 July respectively and should be read in conjunction with this, the most recent communication.
Bank Account_A separate deposit for benefit returns will no longer be possible from 13 August
From 13 August, if you submit a deposit to the published BIBC bank account without going through the returns submission process and payment gateway, that deposit will be returned to you after we have recovered the bank fee. Only non-return payments may still be paid to the ‘old’ bank account from 13 August. Examples of non-return payments are arbitration fees and AOD/settlement agreement instalments. Please make sure that you give us a reference (your employer number) when you make the non-return payments to avoid further bank fees and interest charges.
Unidentified Deposits + No returns submitted
It is clearly not possible to process a deposit without the requisite information on who the benefits must be allocated to. Accordingly, we have reached out to our bank to assist us in identifying the anonymous deposits currently in our system. We will have to pay the bank to identify each anonymous payer and pay a fee to have these transactions paid back. Along with this batch, are deposits where we know the employer but have been begging unsuccessfully for the returns to be submitted. These deposits will be paid back as well. Banking fees charged to the BIBC will be recovered and a compliance process will be initiated for all deposits paid back, as these transactions will be correctly classified as non-payment.
Interest calculations
Do read the general Explainer that was sent out on 09 July on ‘irregular payment periods’. It is quite unnecessary for employers who pay wages weekly or fortnightly to submit their benefit returns at the same time. We only need 1 monthly return for the previous calendar month. For the month of July as an example, we only need a single return dated 01 July to 31 July, submitted and paid by 07 August. You are highly encouraged to reset your processes if this is not the way you are currently preparing your returns. It is so much easier on your administrators to prepare just one return for submission. You also preserve your business cashflow by making a single monthly purchase of benefits. If you adopt this simpler process, you will not incur interest and you will remain compliant.
Invoice link to payment gateway
For payments of current benefits, you will use the link that displays on your invoice. Our developers have extensive experience with implementation of this facility, and the service provider that we are using is well-known to the industries that use them. We do not anticipate system problems during implementation. Do make sure that you are ready, especially if you have different persons preparing the return to the resource that is making the actual payment. We have set it up so that you can forward the pro-forma invoice for payment to your authorised user.
Next Communications
The next communications in this series will be distributed on 25 July.
