Auto Enrolment Pension Duties

It is several years since the Government brought in legislation which required employers to provide an auto enrolment pension scheme for their employees.  And it is quite a while since I highlighted the ongoing duties employers have when they have employees.  An employer may have employees who do not meet the auto enrolment criteria but even if this is the case there are still duties to be met.

Employers must monitor the ages and earnings of all employees so that they can be enrolled into the pension scheme as soon as they meet the criteria.  However employees may choose to join the pension scheme and employers must make this option available to them.

Other duties include

• Communicating with employees in writing within 6 weeks of enrolling them into the scheme to let them know they have been auto-enrolled into the company pension scheme
• Managing requests to leave or join the scheme or to vary contributions
• Keep records for 6 years of the company scheme, the details of the employees in the scheme and the contributions
• Pay both the employee and employer pension contributions into the scheme when they are due

Every 3 years the employer must re-enrol any employees who have opted out of the auto-enrolment scheme more than 12 months previously as long as they meet the criteria for auto-enrolment.  The employer must write to them about their enrolment in the pension scheme and they can, of course, opt out again if they wish.  Opt outs must occur within 1 month of being enrolled if they want their pension deduction returned to them. 

The re-declaration of compliance is also completed at the same 3 year anniversary of initial registration.

Pension administration

There is a lot of administration involved in dealing with auto enrolment pension schemes, especially when there are a lot of employees, which is why we have always offered an administration service to our payroll clients. 

Pension auto-enrolment has become a standard task for those of us running payroll and we automatically assess every new employee's earnings to see if they meet the criteria for enrolment into the company scheme.  

Keeping on top of the administration ensures the relevant communications are done on time,and that new employees are enrolled as soon as their postponement period ends.  

Contact our payroll department if the administration of your payroll and pension scheme is becoming too time consuming - we can guarantee you will find it straightforward and efficient.