Oct 2016
20
Cyclical Automatic Enrolment
Cyclical automatic re-enrolment occurs approximately every three years after an employer’s staging date. Essentially cyclical reenrolment is a repeat of the process the employer carried out on their staging date (or deferral date if they used postponement to postpone all their workers at staging).
However there are some key differences between automatic reenrolment and automatic enrolment:
• While both automatic re-enrolment and automatic enrolment apply to eligible jobholders, automatic re-enrolment will only apply to eligible jobholders who have already had an automatic enrolment date with that employer.
• Postponement cannot be used with automatic re-enrolment. If the eligible jobholder criteria are met by a worker on the automatic re-enrolment date, automatic re-enrolment must take place with effect from that date.
Crucially, the employer does not have to assess all their workers to identify if any meet the eligible jobholder criteria. Instead they must assess only the workers who have opted out or voluntarily ceased active membership of a qualifying scheme. The assessment of worker categories carried out on the cyclical automatic reenrolment date is separate to the employer’s usual assessment process, which they run each pay reference period to identify whether automatic enrolment or any information requirements are triggered.
Key points:
• Another declaration of compliance will need to be completed
• 1 date for all staff - if you are eligible you must be enrolled
• Postponement cannot be used
Source: pension regulator
