The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has launched a consultation for proposals to improve the automatic-enrolment process.
It is seeking detailed feedback on its proposals from employers and pension and payroll providers from 25 March 2013 to 7 May 2013.
The proposals include:
- Streamlining the process for assessing who is eligible for automatic-enrolment. The new regulation aims to allow employers to assess eligibility using information already collected by payroll systems.
- Lifting the requirement for people to be automatically-enrolled if they have recently been put in their workplace pension scheme and left it.
- Asking wider questions about whether the process can be made easier for some employers where their approach already meets the aims of auto-enrolment, or that offer a defined benefits pension scheme.
Steve Webb, minister for pensions, said: “We promised we’d listen to those employers [which] were first to automatically enrol their staff into a workplace pension.
“These proposals are to make sure that parts of the legislation work better and are more user-friendly.
“We are also asking for suggestions on how we could recognise the best employers.
“Employers and our partners in the pensions and payroll industry have made a major contribution in delivering these landmark reforms.
“We want to build on this as medium-sized employers prepare to automatically enrol their staff into a workplace pension.”
