Bonus statement redaction is the removal of personal identifiers from an incentive record. Employment Rights Act 1996 s.27 counts such an award as wages once it is payable. That is why withholding one can become an unlawful deduction under s.13. anonym.plus marks each name, reference, and award on your device, so the figures stay clear while the recipient is shielded.
When this applies
Incentive data does double duty. An employer with 250 or more employees reports the mean and median bonus gap between men and women, and the share of each sex receiving a bonus. Those measures come from the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. The same rows also settle arguments about who was paid what, so the file travels well beyond payroll.
How anonym.plus handles it
- Open the slip in anonym.plus on your device.
- The tool flags the name, reference, and award figure.
- Local OCR reads a scanned copy if needed.
- Confirm the flags and keep the metric labels.
- Swap or black out the marked items.
- Save the clean file locally.
What you need to provide
- The slip (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, or scan).
- An operator (Replace keeps the figures readable).
- Optional: turn the name map OFF for true anonymity.
PII entity types detected
| Category | anonym.plus entity type | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Names | PERSON | Jordan Wells → [STAFF] |
| Financial | MONEY | award £8,500 → [AWARD] |
| Identifiers | UK_NINO | NI number → [NINO] |
| Dates | DATE_TIME | cycle Q2 2026 → [PERIOD] |
| Organization | ORGANIZATION | Acme team → [ORG] |
| Contact | EMAIL_ADDRESS | j.wells@example.co.uk → [EMAIL] |
Compliance achieved
- Keeps the award figures that Employment Rights Act 1996 s.27 treats as wages once payable readable.
- Protects the evidence behind an unlawful-deduction claim under ERA 1996 s.13, where a bonus is withheld after it falls due.
- Feeds the mean and median bonus measures in the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017, for employers of 250 or more.
- Applies data minimisation under UK GDPR Art. 5(1)(c) to fields a reader of the copy does not need.
- Works toward the anonymity standard in UK GDPR Recital 26 when the name map stays off.
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Limitations & cautions
A rare award size points at one person in a small team even after names go. Band the figures before you share. Redaction also does not decide whether an award was contractual or discretionary — that is a contract question, and often a tribunal one.
Frequently asked questions
Is a bonus treated as wages in the UK?
Once it is payable, yes. Employment Rights Act 1996 s.27 includes bonuses in wages, so withholding one that has fallen due can be an unlawful deduction under s.13.
Do I still need the bonus rows for gender pay gap reporting?
Yes. The 2017 Regulations need the mean and median bonus gap and the proportion of each sex receiving one. Keep your source and share the de-identified copy.
Will targets and metric labels survive the pass?
Yes. Only personal identifiers are marked, so metric names, targets, and payout curves stay intact for analysis.