Dec 2015
9
Auto enrolment - Autumn statement changes affecting minimum contribution schemes
The Government has announced plans to adjust, by about 6 months, the date on which the minimum pension contribution levels increase.
Phase 2 (when the minimum contributions increase to 3% employee and 2% employer) was scheduled for 1st October 2017 and phase 3 (when they increase to 5% employee and 3% employer) was scheduled for 1st October 2018.
Phase 2 will now start on 6 April 2018† and phase 3 will start on 6 April 2019† (†subject to parliamentary approval). This is not a delay to the roll out of automatic enrolment, but a measure to give all employers, and smaller employers in particular, more time to prepare for the increases and to reduce the administrative burden by aligning the changes with the start of each tax year.
This change will also make it considerably easier for payroll software to deal with the uplifts as they are now aligned to payroll years.
