Auto enrolment

Auto-enrolment

By now most of our clients will have dealt with their auto-enrolment process and have set up pension schemes with our help for their staff. According to government statistics 8.5 million people have automatically been enrolled in work-place pensions by nearly 800,000 employers.

From October 2017 anyone thinking of taking on staff for the first time should start planning for their automatic enrolment responsibilities. As soon as they take on staff they will have work-place pension duties. Paying into automatic enrolment should be carried out alongside all other tasks associated with running the business and a business start-up.

If the employer has eligible staff to put into a pension scheme they will need to identify a provider and allow plenty of time to do this. They should also ensure there chosen payroll solutions are compatible with their scheme so that staff receive the pensions they are entitled to on time.

Within five months of taking on staff employers must complete a declaration of compliance to the Pension Regulator telling them what they have done.

Employers should be aware that meeting their duties late or failing to set up a scheme as soon as they employ eligible staff will not save the money. This is because contributions will need to be backdated.

Ongoing duties

Automatic enrolment is not a one-off task. Employers have ongoing duties. This means they must continue to assess staff and keep records every three years. Staff who initially opted out must be automatically enrolled back into a workplace pension. They then must complete a re-declaration of compliance within five months of the anniversary of their staging date. Between now and the end of the year 12,000 employers are due to complete their redeclaration of compliance.