Auto-enrolment Pensions
Employers will have a duty to assess their workforce and enrol those that meet certain criteria into a pension scheme. The types of staff that need to be automatically enrolled are:
- Aged between 22 and state pension age
- Working or ordinarily working in the UK
- Earning over the automatic enrolment trigger which is currently £833 per month (£192 per week)
If there are no members of staff that need to be automatically enrolled, there is no requirement to have a pension scheme in place on the staging date.
For more information please see here.
What if I don’t have any staff other than director(s)?
If you don’t have any staff other than directors, you may not have any automatic enrolment duties. You won’t have any duties if the only people working for you are:
- you as the sole director, or
- a number of directors, none of whom has an employment contract, or
- a number of directors, only one of whom has an employment contract
Automatic enrolment will apply if more than one director has a contract of employment.
You can find more information about your duties if you're a director in automatic enrolment enquiries.
What if my spouse is my only employee
There may still be a need to provide a pension scheme dependent upon age and earnings, there are no exceptions for spouse/partner. see here
What do you need to do?
If you receive a letter which includes your staging date and you believe that automatic enrolment duties don’t apply to you, or if there are no staff under contracts of employment, please email customersupport@autoenrol.tpr.gov.uk and complete the details in the pre-populated message that opens when you select our email address. You’ll need your letter code , PAYE reference and Companies House number (if you have one) to hand.
If your computer doesn’t automatically open the message in the email service you use, please download and follow the instructions in our no employer duties email template (PDF, 132kb, 1 page).
If your circumstances change so that automatic enrolment duties apply to you, you’ll need to inform the Pensions Regulator of this as soon as possible. This would happen if you took on a member of staff other than a director, or if at least two directors started working for you under contracts of employment.
The Pensions Regulator a full step-by-step guide at www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk
If you have any further questions, please contact us.
