Pensions
Pensions
What is automatic enrolment?
Under the Pensions Act 2008, every employer in the UK must enrol certain staff into a workplace pension and pay into it.
When employing staff for the first time, you have a legal duty from the day your first member of staff starts work.
What you need to do will depend on whether you have staff who need to be put into a pension scheme or not. You will also need to complete an online declaration of compliance to tell the Pension Regulator what you have done for automatic enrolment. The Pensions Regulator is responsible for ensuring that all employers comply with workplace pension law.
The Pensions Regulator have an online tool explaining what you need to do if you are employing staff for the first time.
Ongoing duties
Each time you pay your staff (including new starters), you must monitor their age and earnings to see if they need to be put into a pension scheme and how much you need to pay in.
Every three years you must carry out re-enrolment to put back in any staff who have left your scheme (i.e. previously opted out).
You will need to continue paying into the pension scheme, manage requests to join or leave the scheme and keep records.
Contribution rates
The current contributions rates can be found in the Employment Facts section.
Note: Because of the complexities around auto-enrolment, many organisations outsource this with their payroll.
More Guidance: The Pensions Regulator provides extensive guidance about auto enrolment.