Auto Enrolment
The law on workplace pensions has changed. Every employer with at least one member of staff now has new duties, including putting those who meet certain criteria into a workplace pension scheme and contributing to it.
EMPLOYER'S DUTIES
Know when you need to be ready
You must be ready to start enrolling employees from your staging date. This can be found here.
Assess your workforce
You will have to assess all your employees to check who has to be automatically enrolled. This depends on their age, whether they work in the UK and their earnings.
Choose a pension scheme
The pension scheme must meet certain criteria to qualify. The Government has set up a pension scheme called the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) to accept all employers wanting to use the scheme for automatic enrolment. This is one option and there are other pension schemes available.
Automatically enrol your employees
At your staging date you will need to identify employees to be enrolled and calculate pension contributions. The contributions should then be paid across to the pension scheme on time.
Communicate to employees
Employees have to be informed at key stages in the auto enrolment process.
Complete declaration of compliance
You must complete your declaration of compliance (registration) when you have automatically enrolled employees to let the Pension Regulator know you have fulfilled your duties.
Maintain records
You must keep records of all your automatic enrolment activities for at least 6 years.