It’s essential that your business complies with auto-enrolment, so we’ve created some steps that you can follow to help you ensure that everything is covered.
Make sure you know when your staging date is for auto-enrolment. If you are an SME with under 30 members of staff, then it is likely to be at some point between now and April 2017.
Discover your staging date for auto-enrolment by visiting www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/employers/staging-date.aspx
Workers who are eligible for auto-enrolment are those who are aged between 22 and state pension age; work in the UK and earn above £10,000 per annum.
As an employer you will need to pay minimum contributions, which rise over time, starting at a 1% minimum of qualifying earnings which includes, wages, bonus, overtime, commission and statutory payments in 2016 to a minimum of 3% by 2018. Your employees will also have a minimum percentage of contributions to pay.
Inform your employees about their workplace pension: all of those affected will need to be told in writing.
You might have a workplace pension for your employees already. If this is the case, then you will need to ensure that it meets the qualifying criteria to allow it to be used for auto-enrolment.
If you don’t have a pension in place, it’s a good idea to talk with a financial advisor or a pensions advisor. This will help you to find and implement a pension scheme tailored to meet the needs of your business.
The Pensions Regulator needs to be informed of your compliance. You can do this online shortly after your staging date.
Don’t forget to keep an eye on those employees who are not currently eligible, and auto-enrol them if/when they do become eligible.
It is a legal requirement for you to automatically re-enrol any employees who have opted out. This needs to be carried out roughly every three years, your re-enrolled employees can opt-out again if they want to. To learn more about this, visit our blog on how re-enrolment works.
