What is auto enrolment? 

Automatic enrolment is a government initiative to help more people save for later life through a pension scheme at work. Under the Pensions acts of 2008 & 2011 workplace pensions law has changed and now every employer in the UK will be required to help more of their workers save for retirement.

●   Automatic enrolment makes it compulsory for employers to offer eligible workers a workplace pension

●   The employer must automatically enrol every eligible worker into the scheme

●   The employer must make a minimum contribution to the scheme

●   Failure to comply with the legislation could incur severe penalties and fines

We are more than happy to provide an individual quotation to any employer wishing to consider our auto-enrolment package to help them ensure they comply with all of the necessary legislation.

Our solution is based on a low-cost monthly fee avoiding the cash flow implications of paying large upfront fees for auto enrolment services.

Automatic enrolment will create an extra administrative and compliance burden upon employers that they may not have the skills, time or desire to undertake. At I.A.W Accountancy Services we have teamed up with NEST, a company dedicated to offering a complete wrap around service designed to aid companies in the fulfilment of their employer duties.

What is covered by auto enrolment?

Below we have detailed the initial and ongoing responsibilities employers face under auto enrolment. Our service is designed to aid employers meet their compliance responsibilities in regard to all of the areas listed below. Alternatively it will give an insight into the process for employers wishing to undertake auto-enrolment duties in house.

What are an employer’s duties for auto enrolment?

Below is a summary of the key duties’ employers need to undertake to get ready for auto enrolment, along with a summary of the ongoing duties post the auto enrolment date.

1. Know your staging date

Your staging date is the date on which you need to enrol all of your eligible workers into a suitable pension scheme and start paying contributions. Given the range of tasks involved with getting ready for auto enrolment our advice is to start preparing 6-9 months ahead of your staging date. If you would like to know your staging date please complete the form at the top of this page and we will email you with details of your relevant staging date.

2. Nominate a contact

You need to tell the pensions regulator who will be responsible for managing the automatic enrolment process by nominating a contact. This is the person who the regulator will send updates and information, letters and emails about the process to.

3. Develop initial plans

This will involve getting your payroll and HR team involved in understanding the changes and processes involved. You can begin to log in to the regulators automatic enrolment declaration of compliance (registration) online service and start providing some of the information required such as address and PAYE information.

4. Know your workforce

Your workforce will fall into one of three categories, eligible job holders; non-eligible job holders; entitled workers. It is important you assess your workforce and understand the category into which they fit.

5. Check your processes and software

You’ll need to make sure your business processes and software will support auto enrolment. Many of the functions necessary for handling the specific requirements will need to be automated, such as:

●   deducting and paying contributions to the scheme

●   monitoring the ages and earnings of your staff

●   handling requests to join the pension scheme from members of staff who haven’t been automatically enrolled.

6. Review pension arrangements

This is the time when you must choose the pension scheme you will auto-enrol your staff into. You may already have a pension scheme, but will need to check that it is compliant with the auto-enrolment regulations, as this may not necessarily be the case.

You’ll need to choose an automatic enrolment scheme that will provide a good outcome for your staff. You must have agreement from the pension scheme you’ve chosen that, from your staging date, it will be ready to accept all the staff you need to enrol.

7. Communicate to staff

One of your duties is to write to each member of staff telling them how automatic enrolment law affects them, for example, whether they’ve been automatically enrolled, or that automatic enrolment has been postponed for them. You must do this within certain time limits, usually within six weeks of them being enrolled, or within six weeks of your staging date if you’re postponing.

What you must tell them is different depending on their rights and whether you’ve postponed automatic enrolment for them. You can postpone automatic enrolment for some or all of your staff for up to three months from staging. Start planning these communications before your staging date, so you know who should receive what information.

On and after your staging date

1. Know who you need to enrol. 

At this point you will need to assess the earnings and ages of your staff to ensure you know who you will be auto enrolling. At the point of declaration, you will need to account for everyone who worked for you on your staging date and how many people you auto-enrolled.

2. Automatically enrol your staff

At this point you will need to have your pension scheme up and running, enrol your staff into the pension scheme and start deducting contributions from staff and paying them to the pension provider along with the employer contributions. Important note: You must not say or do anything that could be viewed as influencing any of your staff to opt out of your pension scheme. This is referred to as inducement which is a breach of the law and could result in fines.

3. Declaration of compliance

Within 5 months of your staging date, you will need to make a declaration of compliance to the regulator informing them that you have complied with your employer duties. Failure to make this declaration may well result in a fine.

4. Keeping records

Certain records must be kept about your staff and about the pension scheme. Some of these will be kept by the pension scheme, some must be kept by the employer. These include:

●   names and addresses of staff you’ve automatically enrolled

●   the contributions payable to the pension scheme and when they were paid

●   any opt-in or opt-out notices you receive

●   name and address of the pension scheme

●   employer pension scheme reference or pension scheme registry number.

Make sure you know what these records are and where to get them from. You'll also need to decide how you'll store them so you can easily access them. You’ll need to be able to produce these records if we ask to see them. Keeping records is good governance and is proof that you’ve carried out your duties. These records must be kept for a specified time, which in most cases is six years.

5. Ongoing responsibilities

Although it may seem as though all the work happens before your staging date, that doesn't mean that it's all done when your staging date arrives. The preparations you’ve made in the run-up to your staging date will allow you to manage automatic enrolment on an ongoing basis. Just like submitting real-time PAYE, all your automatic enrolment activities will become business as usual. These include the following:

●   Paying contributions

●   Processing opt outs

●   Processing opt-in requests

●   Monitoring ages and earnings

●   Assessing new starters

6. Pension scheme governance

 It will be a duty of the employer to ensure the pension scheme chosen both initially and ongoing offers good value to the employees as a haven for their pension savings.

Well that rounds up our article about auto enrolment. For the very latest information on this topic, please go to the UK Government website.