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

Posted byCaoimhe ByrneinAuto EnrolmentPayroll Software

At 30 September 2016 36% of employees now auto-enrolled

In a recent survey of employees in the UK undertaken by YouGov, on behalf of the workplace pension provider Smart Pension, has resulted in more than one third of employees have now set up a pension through the government's auto-enrolment initiative.

Results of the survey regarding employees about what type of pensions they have are:

• 36% said their pensions were created under auto-enrolment,

• 28% said they had non-auto-enrolled workplace pensions,

• 17% had a standard personal pension (SPP),

• 8% had a self-invested personal pension (SIPP) and

• 7% had a stakeholder pension.

• 6% had no idea what sort of pension they have

• 17% said they have no pension

Will Wynne, co-founder and MD of Smart Pension, said: “Auto-enrolment has already overtaken every other form of pension, including personal pensions, in a very short space of time. The initiative is clearly gaining momentum and looks on track to hit targets over the next two years when 1.8m small and micro firms have staged.”

Opt-outs

19% of UK employees said they would either opt out or have opted out of their workplace scheme, this is higher than the governments targeted figure of 15% opt-out rate. Currently the government's own figures are circa 10%, almost half than the amount resulted per the poll.

The main reason employees are opting out are due to lack of available monies (26%) or they would not want to invest in a pension (17%). 48% of employees did not want to think of preparing and saving for old age although 56% of employees believed they were not preparing adequately for retirement and saving enough. The results of the survey showed that most employees could afford to invest more money in their pension but they had no intention of doing so.

A separate poll found 55% of employers thought auto-enrolment was a burden and 38% said it was unfair, but 72% said they felt it would not hold back growth plans.

Posted byDebbie ClarkeinAuto Enrolment

NINOs with prefix 'KC' will be accepted by HMRC from 15th November

National Insurance Numbers had been issued with the prefix of KC by Jobcentre Plus (on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions). These National Insurance numbers are valid. HMRC had issues with these NINOs with the KC prefix as HMRC has not included the KC prefix as a valid prefix on their list of valid prefixes to software developers. So HMRC's systems did not recognise the prefix KC and most payroll software did not recognise it either. But from 15 November 2016, as advised by HMRC, employers will be able to submit RTI data to HMRC for employees using this NINO prefix.

Some software products, including HMRC’s Basic PAYE Tools, may not be updated before April 2017. If this applies to you then you should continue to follow this guidance when submitting your returns:

• Do not enter the NINO for the employee - this field should be left empty

• The employee's address has to be entered, the first two lines are the minimum requirement

• You do not need to request a new NINO as the NINO with the KC prefix is valid.

Posted byDebbie ClarkeinHMRCPayroll Software

Are you up to date with family friendly leave?

Family friendly leave has developed significantly in recent years. Keeping abreast of what’s what can be challenging for employers.

BrightPay’s employment law experts have designed a free webinar for employers, which will give attendees an overview of Maternity, Paternity, Shared Parental Leave and Parental Leave how to process them directly through payroll.

The webinar will highlight frequently asked questions in relation to the leave types mentioned above, such as:

• Who is eligible?
• How employees apply?
• Pay and other benefits during family friendly leave.
• Managing family friendly leave efficiently and legally!

The webinar will give attendees a chance to ask any questions you may have, with an interactive Q&A session at the end of the webinar.

Places are limited for this webinar. Don’t miss out – book your place now!

If you cannot attend the webinar, don't worry – the webinar will be recorded and as long as you have registered you will receive a link to the recording afterwards.

Bright Contracts – Employment Contracts and Handbooks.
BrightPay – Payroll & Auto Enrolment Software.

Posted byRachel HynesinBright Contracts NewsEventsParental Leave