Does Automatic Enrolment apply to you?

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is ensuring that all employers fulfil their auto enrolment duties required by the Pensions Act 2008. It is essential that all employers understand that if they employ just one person, they have certain legal duties for automatic enrolment. After the 1st October 2017, new employers who employ their first member of staff will have to comply with auto enrolment from the day the new employee starts.

So what do you do?

1. If you already have an employee(s) and they commenced work with you before 2nd April 2017 you should find out what your duties are by using TPR’s duties checker. There are also video tutorials online to help with understanding how to process Automatic Enrolment (AE) in our payroll software BrightPay.
   
   
2. If you’ve employed new staff between 2nd April 2017 and 30th September 2017 you can find out when your AE duties commence by clicking here.
   
   
3. If you’re employing a new member of staff after 1st October 2017, you need to prepare early and find out what you need to do. Watch a replay of a recent webinar where we discuss New Employers and their Auto Enrolment Duties to assist with your preparations.
   
   
4. When your duties start you must assess your employees to see if they meet the earnings and age conditions. If your employee needs to be put into a pension scheme, you need to carry out certain auto enrolment tasks to meet your legal duties. If you find that your employees are not eligible to be put in a pension scheme, you are still required to notify your staff that they have a right to join or opt in to a pension scheme and you must still complete your declaration of compliance.
   
   
5. All employers have ongoing AE duties regardless of whether they have employees in a pension scheme or not. Every time you process your payroll, you are required to assess your staff’s earnings and age to see if they need to be placed in a pension scheme and if so, calculate how much you need to pay into this scheme. You must also manage requests to join or leave the pension scheme.
   
   
6. As an employer, you need to think about what costs are involved with your legal duties. Alternative payroll software providers have AE as an additional charge to your payroll costs. HMRC’s Basic PAYE Tools does not provide assessment of your employees or automatically enrol your employees into a pension scheme. With BrightPay, AE is included in our payroll software at no additional cost and provides a pre-assessment tool to get an overview of what AE will look like before an employer reaches their staging date.

Posted byLorraine McEvoyinAuto Enrolment