All UK employers must formally assess their employees’ eligibility for a workplace pension, send letters to their employees confirming their status, and enrol their employees into a workplace pension scheme if they meet the criteria. Once enrolled into the pension scheme, both the employer and employee contribute to the pension.

Do my staff qualify for a workplace pension?

Your staff qualify for a pension if they:

  • Are aged between 22 years old and the State Pension Age 
  • Earn £10,000 or above per annum

What is Auto Enrolment?

Auto enrolment is a government initiative which requires all UK employers to ‘automatically’ enrol any qualifying employees into a workplace pension scheme and make contributions towards that pension.

The employer must submit a ‘Declaration of Compliance’ to The Pensions Regulator within 5 months of becoming an employer. 

Every three years the employer must also: 

  • ‘re-declare’ their compliance with The Pensions Regulator 
  • re-assess and potentially re-enrol employees who previously chose to leave the pension scheme.

Both the employer and the employee are required to contribute to the pension and these amounts must be reflected on each payslip.

What is the risk of not offering a pension scheme?

If the employer does not pay pension contributions which are due or declare their compliance, they can be fined by The Pensions Regulator.

What if my employee doesn’t qualify but still wants a pension?

If your employee does not qualify for a workplace pension, they still have the right to join one at any time by ‘opting in’.

What if staff do not wish to join a pension scheme?

Even if your employee does not wish to join/remain in the pension scheme, it remains a legal requirement to enrol them into one initially (if they qualify). 

Once an employee has been enrolled into a pension scheme, they can choose to either ‘opt out’ or ‘cease membership’ of the scheme: 

Opt Out 

Your employee has one month from the date they are enrolled to contact the pension scheme provider directly and ‘opt out’. A refund of any contributions paid is then processed. 

Cease Membership 

After the one month ‘opt out’ window ends, an employee can still request to ‘cease membership’. Any contributions made to that date would not be refunded but would remain in their pension pot.

How can Stafftax help you

Workplace Pensions

With the support of our pensions service Enable Autoenrol, we can manage all of your pension obligations for you. You can add the Staff Pensions service on to any Stafftax payroll subscription. 

Here’s an overview of what we do to ensure you’re compliant with The Pensions Regulator and the latest pensions legislation.

  • Set up an employer pension scheme account with NEST 
  • Monitor your employee’s pension status each month 
  • Automatically enrol your employee into the pension scheme if they qualify 
  • Calculate pension contributions to be deducted from your employee’s salary 
  • Provide employers with regulatory letters for their employees 
  • Process any ‘opt in’ requests from employees 
  • Act in accordance with any employee ‘opt out’ or ‘cease membership’ notifications we receive from NEST 
  • Keep comprehensive auto enrolment records 
  • Submit your ‘Declaration of Compliance’ to The Pensions Regulator 
  • Re-declare your compliance to The Pensions Regulator every 3 years and re-enrol any employees in line with regulations

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Domestic Employment Contract

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