When employing new and seasonal workers, you need to consider how auto-enrolment affects them and your business.
Who do I need to enrol?
You will need to do a formal assessment of any new staff so you know whether they should be enrolled into the Scheme. You should not enrol any workers into the Scheme before you have assessed them.
Staff aged between 22 to State Pension Age and earn over £192 a week, or £833 a month, must be put into the pension scheme.
Consider using postponement
You can choose to delay working out who to put into the Scheme for up to three months. This is called postponement.
If you have staff who will not be working for you for longer than three months, such as short-term seasonal workers, you may decide to postpone. You can also use postponement for new staff on probationary period. At the end of the postponement period, you must assess and auto-enrol any staff who are still working for you if they meet the age and earnings thresholds.
The Pensions Regulator has a handy guide to postponement.
How do I add new workers to the Scheme?
Guidance on how to add new workers to the Scheme is available here.
Please remember to allow time for new records to be checked and approved. This must be completed at least 2 days before your contribution upload file is due for upload.
How do I manage staff who don’t want to be in the Scheme?
If staff wish to leave within one month of joining the scheme, they may opt-out. You should refund any contributions already deducted at the next pay run. Find out more about the opt-out process.
Remember, it is against the law for employers to encourage or offer inducements to employees to opt-out of pension saving.