To help more people save for their retirement, the government has made major changes to how workplace pensions operate.
Automatic enrolment is being introduced in stages up until 2018. The largest employers started first, followed by medium-sized and then small employers. All employers should by now have their staging date which is the date by which a Qualifying Workplace Pension Scheme should be in place.
If you have full time or part time employees they will have to be enrolled if they:
- are not already in a suitable workplace pension scheme
- are at least 22 years old, but under State Pension age
- earn more than £10,000 a year (tax year 2019-20)
- work in the UK
Auto enrolment is not a choice for employers, you have a staging date which you must comply with, if you have at least 1 employee you have to have a scheme in place and if you have eligible employees then they must be enrolled into the scheme.
If you do not follow the rules then warning letters and hefty fines will follow which by seeking professional help can be easily avoided.