Week 53 is the one or two days between the last pay period of the tax year and the first pay period of the new tax year. If you pay your employees weekly, fortnightly or every 4 weeks, you need to account for this period in your employee pension contributions.

When week 53 happens

Week 53 normally lasts for one day, but in leap years it lasts for two days.

Week 53 happens on:

• 5 April - non-leap years
• 4 to 5 April - leap years

Who needs to make week 53 contributions

If your payroll falls on week 53 and is aligned to tax periods

If your payroll aligns to tax periods and you pay your staff weekly, fortnightly or every four weeks, you will need to upload contributions to your pension scheme for this period.

If your payroll doesn’t align to tax periods or you pay your staff monthly, then this does not apply to you.

If your payroll doesn’t fall on week 53 but is aligned to tax periods

We don’t allow gaps in pension contributions for active scheme members. That means that if your payroll doesn’t fall on week 53, you need to upload a submission with zero earnings for this period. If you are unsure how to do this, contact our customer support team.

How to upload week 53 contributions

Non-leap years

When uploading contributions for week 53, set your contribution start date as 5 April 2022 and the end date as 5 April 2022. This applies to both bulk uploads or PAPDIS file uploads.

Leap years

When uploading contributions for week 53 in a leap year, set your contribution start date as 4 April and end date as 5 April. Again, this applies to both bulk uploads or PAPDIS file uploads.