Legal Aid

Provider payment runs: "nil payments" and timings

PUBLISHED February 11, 2014
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Clarification on "nil payments" and remittance timings

We announced before Christmas 2013 that remittance advice slips would in future be sent out for "nil payments".
Following feedback we need to clarify exactly what a "nil payment" is and explain why these do not happen very often.
"Nil payments" happen when the weekly payment run process generates a payment run total of "nil" for a provider - they are also known as "zero payments".
This will be because invoices submitted by the provider total the exact debt amount.

No actual payment

In these "nil payment" instances a remittance advice will be generated and sent to the provider, though no actual payment arises.

This is different to the other two instances when there will be no payment due to a provider for the week. These are when:

  • no bills have been submitted by the provider for payment so there is nothing to pay
  • the provider is in a net debt position i.e. owes the LAA money
In these two cases, a remittance advice will not be generated as nothing is processed in that week's payment run.
Below are two simple examples to help understand this further.
Example 1
The weekly payment run identifies a provider has £50 debt existing and has submitted an invoice of £50.
Outcome: This is a "nil payment" instance. The payment run will net the two items against each other. A remittance will be generated and sent to the provider.
Example 2
The weekly payment run identifies a provider has £50 debt existing and has submitted an invoice of £30.
Outcome: This is not a "nil payment" instance. The debt is netted off against the invoice but there is still a debt due to the LAA of £20. No remittance is generated. The relevant transactions are disclosed on the monthly Provider Statement of Account (PSoA).

Further information

Justice website: Changes to provider remittance advices ? news story 17 December 2013

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